Bean Soup

For Casondra.

When I make soup, which is often during the fall and winter months, I do so in a completely organic fashion. Organic as in process, not necessarily referring to ingredients, although sometimes that is the case; it depends on what I can find in the grocer. I don't usually measure or weigh or count, I just toss stuff into a pot and simmer it until everything is cooked.

I've made this bean soup a few times, but never the same way twice. That said, Emily really liked the last batch, so I'm going to try to write it down as close as possible to the way I prepared it. Your mileage may vary.

Ingredients

1 lb. thick-sliced bacon (you can substitute a nice ham steak or some grilled chicken)
3 - 4 Tbsp bacon fat or olive oil
1 large yellow onion or 3 - 4 small boiler onions, whole
4 - 5 carrots
4 - 5 stalks of celery
5 - 6 cloves of garlic
6 cans of your favorite beans, we mix them up for variety
1 large can of tomato puree
2 qts. chicken or vegetable stock
2 c. water
1 Tbsp smoked paprika
1 Tbsp cumin
Salt and pepper to taste

Cook bacon until the fat has started to render; you don't want it too crisp at this point. Reserve the bacon fat for later use (if using).

While the bacon is cooking, open, drain and rinse the beans and set aside. Chop up the mirepoix (carrots, celery and onion) into even-sized pieces and also chop up the garlic. Open up the tomato puree and stock.

Add fat to a large soup pot and heat over a medium flame. Add mirepoix and cook until the onions begins to turn translucent. Add garlic and cook for two minutes. Add beans and cook for two minutes. Then add the spices, tomato, stock and water. Bring to a simmer and then cover (mostly) and cook until the vegetables are tender. Season to taste and serve. It's really lovely with corn bread or biscuits, and a glass of wine (or two or three).

N.B. this recipe makes a metric **tt-ton of soup, so you should be prepared to freeze a bunch of it for safe keeping. Feel free to reduce by half or a third; the measurements for this are left as an exercise to the interested student.