Best Beans Ever! Seven Stars. Smaller than grocery store navy beans, very clean and uniform. Great flavor and texture. Actually a few cents less per pound than Safeway.□ Rather not eat pork? Use smoked turkey parts. I put the turkey in plain water to simmer overnight and use more than I would pork for a deep rich flavor that holds up to reheating and added water when the broth gets low. Hubby, who hates turkey, has never noticed. He loves this!□ For intense flavor, soak beans overnight with 1 Tbs salt per quart of water. Drain and rinse, then add a small bit of salt to cooking water for the most tender beans.□ Photo is my Black and White soup, aka San Francisco Rice and Beans. So delicious that we both do midnight raids on it! Easy to make, hard to resist, organic, low fat, rational salt. Start with your favorite bean soup recipe; don't have one, search for Senate Bean Soup. An hour before cooking is done add pure wild rice (Trader Joe's is affordable and cultivated so sustainable, Amazon too) in the same volume as you used dry beans. Increase water by three times the volume of rice. After 45 minutes taste and adjust seasonings and water. The wild rice should be crunchy but not hard. It will retain texture for a long time and is a delightful surprise. Naturally, adjust ingredients to your taste. I leave out celery, which I despise cooked; don't saute onions, garlic or carrots; add or don't bay leaves, herbs, pepper, whole corn, citrus juice and zest.Tip: to avoid train wrecks, when I experiment with an ingredient, I put a small scoop of soup in a bowl then add and judge the new stuff. Don't experiment with the whole pot!Our fridge is small and Staub bean pot (chicken roaster) large, so I use Grandma's method: keep the lid on the pot, and once every day bring the soup to a rolling boil for a few minutes. Not USDA approved, but we've kept soup going for a month this way, adding whatever sounds good so the flavor and texture changes as the soup evolves. Aha! I've never named this. Now and forever more, this shall be called Darwin Soup. Naturally, when it's time for uninvited guests to leave, invite them to stay for dinner of "Beagle Soup". And kiss them goodbye.
