Lynn’s Bean Soup – Vegetarian

Ingredients

• 2 cups dried bean soup mix (black beans, chick peas, lima beans, pot barley, red kidney beans, red lentils, split peas, navy beans) or 2 cups of any bean mix
• 7 cups of water
• 796ml (28 oz) can tomatoes with Italian spices, no salt added
• 1 large onion (2 cups), diced
• 3 stalks celery & leaves, diced
• 1 cup green peppers, diced
• 6 white button mushrooms, sliced, quartered
• Water or no salt homemade vegetable broth as needed
• 1 tsp garlic powder*
• 1 tsp dried oregano*
• 1 tsp dried basil*
• 1 tsp dried parsley*
• 1/2 tsp rosemary*
• Black pepper to taste
• 1 tbsp white vinegar

Directions:

1. Soak the beans overnight, covered with about 3-4 inches of water. In the morning, drain and rinse, cover with fresh water again and leave until you are ready to make soup. Drain.

2. Put 7 cups of water into a large soup pot, add beans, place on stove over high heat and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and let the beans cook for an hour or two until the hard center of the beans has almost gone. Stir occasionally to make sure beans are not sticking to the bottom of the pot.

3. Add canned tomatoes, diced onion, diced celery, mushrooms, green peppers and spices. If there is not enough liquid in the pot add some water or no salt vegetable broth.

4. Cook for about an hour or until the vegetables are soft.

5. Add the vinegar to the mix (cuts down on the gassy effects of beans), mix well, season with black pepper and serve.

Makes 6 servings, each serving has approximately 338 calories, 86mg sodium and 62g carbohydrates with the ingredients used.

*adjust spices to your taste preference – add more or less of them or add something more eg. red pepper flakes

**the beans will continue to absorb the liquid so if having this the next day it will be necessary to add more liquid.