Bean Soup With Bacon

This is a very good 2 bean-bacon soup, with diced red onion, celery, and carrots. I used a thick-sliced hickory smoked bacon in this soup, which gave this soup lots of flavor. Cook time includes cooking the bacon, and simmering the soup.

• Ready In: 50 mins
• Serves: 4-5
• Yields: 48 ounces

Ingredients

• 7  slices  hickory smoked-thick sliced bacon
• 1⁄2 cup  diced celery
• 1⁄2 cup  diced red onion
• 1  cup  diced carrot
• 2  garlic cloves, minced
• 1⁄4 teaspoon dried thyme
•  salt and pepper
• 15 1⁄2 ounces great northern beans, rinsed and drained
• 15 1⁄2 ounces pinto beans, rinsed and drained
• 2 (14 1/2ounce) cans chicken broth

Directions

1. Cut away any excess fat from strips of bacon.
2. Dice bacon, and add to a skillet; brown the bacon evenly.
3. Remove bacon from skillet, add to a 3-quart saucepan; but reserving the bacon grease.
4. Add the diced vegetables to the skillet; (along with the bacon grease) season with salt and pepper.
5. Saute vegetables in the skillet, for 4 minutes.
6. Add minced garlic to the skillet, and cook for 1 minute more.
7. Add the cooked vegetables to the saucepan, then add the beans, broth, and the thyme.
8. Cover saucepan, and bring soup to a simmer; simmer the soup for about 11 minutes, until the carrots seem cooked, but not overly cooked.
9. This makes 1-1/2 quarts of soup.
10. Note: for this recipe, I used Farmland's Hickory Smoked Thick Sliced Bacon. Also, when making this soup, the size of canned beans used in soup may vary. The first time I made this soup, I had added 1-(15.8 oz.) can of great northern beans, and the second time, I used 1-(15.5 oz.) can.