Ann & Jane Esselstyn - A Quick Talk

Today is National Bean Day

Read all about it here, or here, or here, then maybe visit Rancho Gordo and pick up a bag or 2 of your favorites or just put your name on the wait list for future openings of the Bean Club.

How am I celebrating? I have 2 pounds of garbanzos in the Instant Pot right now - some to use as cheezy chickpeas for lunch, some to make air fried crunchy chickpeas with for my son (400ºF and shake every 5-10 minutes, stop when to your likeness), some go into a jar in the fridge for tomorrow, and if there are any left, the rest go into zip bags in the freezer.

Manhattan Bean Soup

Still making new-to-me soups now and then, and this is one of them, "Manhattan Bean Soup". I'm assuming the name is a take-off of Manhattan Clam Chowder, the version of that fishy soup that has tomatoes, as opposed to New England Clam Chowder that doesn't. Well, I never ate either, as far as I remember, so I have nothing to compare the taste of this to. I never could stand the smell of clams and refused to ever eat anything made with them.

I remember once as a kid my father took me to the famous Clam Broth House in Hoboken, NJ. He had a yen for them, my mom refused to buy and cook them, so he asked the three of us kids if we wanted to go with him on an adventure and I volunteered. Neither of my brothers wanted to go. In fact, my dad and I went many places without the boys - they would rather stay home than go on mystery trips with our dad. I'm the one who wound up at the top of the Empire State Building, on a fishing boat off of Sandy Hook, driving through the Jersey Pine Barrens (Looking for the Jersey Devil, of course), and in a rowboat in Central Park. A 45 minute bus ride and 15 minute subway ride later and there we were. I still remember the stench of fish and beer, and as soon as I stepped inside I realized why my dad said to wear hard soled shoes and not sneakers - the floor was covered in sawdust and everyone at the "bar" would just toss the empty clam shells on the floor after eating their clams. Yecch! I don't remember what I ate (probably a bowl of tomato soup or maybe just toast), but am very certain I didn't touch any of the clams except to gather a few shells to take home and paint to use as decorations around my bedroom. So long ago! 

MANHATTAN BEAN SOUP

Preparation Time: 30 minutes
Cooking Time: 3 hours
Servings: 8

7 cups water
1 cup Great Northern beans
½ cup dried baby lima beans
1 onion, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
1 large potato, chopped
1  16 ounce can chopped tomatoes
2 tablespoons soy sauce
½ teaspoon ground coriander
½ teaspoon dry mustard
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground ginger
Dash of white pepper
1½ cups soy or rice milk

Place beans and water in a soup pot. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and cook about 2 hours. Add vegetables and seasonings. Cook an additional hour. Remove 1 cup of soup and process in blender until smooth. Add milk and mix well. Add this mixture back to soup pan. Stir until heated through.

The McDougall Newsletter
September 2011  Volume 10 Issue 9
http://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2011nl/sep/recipes.htm

I do love these soups by Mary McDougall. Usually there are a bit less ingredients as compared to others' recipes, and always simple to make.

I was debating first of all whether or not to make this in the Instant Pot, but decided for my first shot at it I would stick with the directions as-written. Because winter is here, I have a wide variety of beans around the house, so grabbing some out of the Great Northern bag and some from the baby limas was not a problem. I started the beans right after lunch so they would be finished cooking by the time the webinar between Gustavo and Dr. McDougall would be finished. It didn't start until 2 pm here on the East Coast.



I used half a one pound bag of frozen diced onions, 1/4 cup of dehydrated celery (Because I also keep a wide variety of dehydrated and/or freeze-dried veggies around, too), 2 cups of potatoes from a bag of frozen hash browns, a can of no-salt added petite diced tomatoes, and Pacific brand almond milk. I have a half dozen boxes of this in the pantry closet so I'm good for a little while - we only use it for recipes, like a bit in soups or dressings or when my son makes his mac & cheese (from this powder recipe). The only store selling it now is Whole Foods and I have no plans to go there in the near future. I'm thinking of buying a canister of this JOI brand Almond Milk Powder to keep on hand for those times we may run out of almond milk and I can't make the hour drive (2+ hours round trip, depending on traffic by the Holland and Lincoln tunnels and how crowded the store is). I know I could buy almond butter and make almond milk with that, but I know if I have a jar of almond butter around the house the stuff is going to wind up in my oatmeal, spoon by spoon. I've seen Justin brand packets of almond butter, a tablespoon per packet, to avoid that temptation, but unfortunately they contain oil.

This is where the picture should be, but unfortunately, when the time came to serve and eat the soup I completely forgot about taking it. Sorry about that.

As for the taste, the soup was just meh. To be honest, it had no real flavor. The beans were very mushy, the spices were undetectable, and that one can of tomatoes got lost in all that water. My husband said there was no need to make this soup again and I agreed, but if I did, or if any of you do, I suggest you double the veggies, and at least double, maybe triple, the spices. Be sure to taste and adjust them as the soup cooks. You won't be sorry.