U.S. Senate Bean Soup

I am a huge fan of the St. Vrain Historical Society’s annual Pumpkin Pie Days. In fact, I have been known to insist that it’s my favorite holiday. Yes, I know it’s not actually a holiday, and no, it’s not really my absolute favorite, but it definitely ranks.

What is Pumpkin Pie Days? During Pumpkin Pie Days weekend, the Boulder County Fairgrounds main building is filled with dozens of stalls crammed with antiques, and the fine women and men (mostly cute grandmas and grandpas) of the St. Vrain Historical Society serve a wonderful meal of vegetable and bean soup, buttered rolls and pumpkin pie with whipped cream (Ben, you’ll be pleased to know that I rewrote this sentence just to avoid the Oxford comma!). The meal is fabulous, and I wait all year for this most favorite of Longmont public events.

In an effort to approximate the wholesome soup of PPDs, I turned to my favorite resource for classic all-American recipes—The Joy of Cooking. The closest recipe I found is U.S. Senate Bean Soup. Why the funny name? This soup has been on the menu of the U.S. Senate every day for over 100 years!

Of course, I modify the recipe to make it as close as possible to the PPDs soup. First, instead of using a ham hock, which usually yields very little meat, I save the end of a spiral cut ham in the freezer. To make the soup, I thaw the ham, cube as much meat as can be removed and use the remaining hock to make the broth. Much better ham flavor and more satisfying pieces of ham. I also add carrots, use more water than recommended for a thinner soup, leave the peels on my potato and leave the beans intact when the soup is done (as opposed to mashing as recommended in the recipe).

The batch I made this evening is for lunches this week. I feel like we need hot, homemade food for lunch at least every other day, so I try to make some kind of soup each week, often on Sunday—for some reason, we call this practice of cooking on Sunday for the upcoming week “secret cooking.” (The other days we have sandwiches and veggies, leftovers or, on really special days, Elia’s burritos!)

The soup is so delicious, so hearty and wholesome and so reminiscent of my wonderful Pumpkin Pie Days! Now, where’s my pie?