Subject: Senate Bean Soup
From: [email-masked] (Stephanie da Silva)
Date: 23 Oct 1996 23:48:55 -0500
Newsgroups: rec.food.recipes

From the rec.food.recipes archive at:
ftp://www.neosoft.com/usenet/rec.food.recipes/
http://www.neosoft.com/recipes/

From: [email-masked] (Jackie Nowicki)
Newsgroups: rec.food.recipes
Subject: Senate Bean Soup
Date: 9 Jan 1996 05:10:10 -0700
Message-ID: <[email-masked]>

Someone requested a recipe for US Senate Bean Soup...this is supposedly 
the original recipe.  It's really good!
Happy cooking -- Jackie

1lb dried white beans (Great Northern or navy)
water to soak
1 meaty ham bone or 2 smoked ham hocks
3 qts. water, to cook
3 medium onions, chopped fine
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 stalks celery, chopped fine
1/4 c. parsley, chopped fine
1 c. cooked mashed potatoes or 1/3 c. instant potato flakes
salt to taste (I found this unnecessary)
1/4 t. freshly ground black pepper, or more to taste
snippets of parsley or chives to garnish (optional)

Rinse and sort beans, and soak overnight  in water to cover.  Drain 
beans and place in 5qt. soup kettle with the ham bones.  Add 3qts. 
COLD water.  Bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer over low heat 
for 2 hours.  Skim if necessary.  In the meantime, chop onions, 
garlic, celery and parsley.  When beans and meat have cooked 2 
hours, add chopped vegetables and potato to the pot.

Simmer 1 hour longer, or until beans are tender.  Season with salt and pepper.
Remove bones and meat from soup.  Die meat into 1/2-inch pieces and 
return to pot.  Discard bones.  Reheat soup to serve.  Garnish with parsley
 or chives.

ALTERNATIVE:  The House Version:  Only beans, ham hock and 
seasoning.  Bruise beans with a spoon or ladle to barely cloud the 
soup before serving.

Adapted from:  The Complete Book of Soups and Stews, Bernard Clayton, Jr.