17-bean And Barley Soup Mix

Total Time: 1 hr 25 mins Preparation Time: 15 mins Cook Time: 1 hr 10 mins

Ingredients

• Servings: 8
• baby lima beans
• black turtle beans
• black-eyed peas
• dark red kidney beans
• garbanzo beans
• great northern bean
• green lentil
• split peas
• 1 large lima beans
• light red kidney beans
• navy beans
• pink beans
• pinto beans
• red lentil
• 1 small red beans
• 1 small beans
• yellow split peas
• pearl barley
• 2 cups bean and soup mix
• 64 ounces vegetable broth (8 cups) or 64 ounces chicken broth (8 cups)
• 1 cup onion, diced
• 1 cup celery, diced (i like to include the leaves for flavor)
• 1 cup carrot, sliced
• 1 cup bell pepper, diced (i used red)
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 bay leaf (i keep fresh bay leaves in the freezer)
• 1 teaspoon salt-free italian herb seasoning
• 15 ounces roasted tomatoes (diced or pureed) or 15 ounces roasted tomato puree (diced or pureed) or 1 (15 ounce) can fire-roasted tomatoes (diced or pureed)
• salt and pepper, to taste

Recipe

• 1 bean-barley soup mix: in a bowl combine about 3 heaping tablespoons of each bean/legume. stir then transfer to an airtight container. measurement is estimated.
• 2 prepping beans for the soup: for this recipe i used the quick soak method for prepping the beans/legumes. to do this, in a large stock pot cover the dried bean mixture with triple their volume of cold water.
• 3 bring water to the boil, lower heat and cook the beans uncovered over moderate heat for 2 minutes.
• 4 remove beans from the heat and set aside to soak for 1 hour. after one hour of soaking, drain the beans and place them back in the pot.
• 5 overnight soak method: place the beans in a pot and cover with water. the next morning, drain and rinse the beans and then continue with recipe in step #6.
• 6 soup preparation: pour 4 cups of vegetable broth or chicken broth into the pot of beans.
• 7 in a separate saute pan, cook onion, celery, carrot, bell pepper, italian seasoning and garlic in olive oil until soft.
• 8 combine this mixture along with the tomatoes in the pot of beans and cover with the remaining broth.
• 9 cover and simmer approximately 1 hour or to desired tenderness.
• 10 check the broth level periodically and add more broth if necessary so that the soup does not dry out. i left the soup thick but made sure to check that the soup was not drying out.
• 11 season with salt and pepper to taste. i ended up adding 1/2 teaspoon of annie's brand worcestershire sauce to the soup.
• 12 if desired, a small amount of fresh parsley garnished each serving, as a suggestion.