Yes indeed, this is not a picture of baked bean soup! I decided that would be a rather boring photo, and besides these individual bean pots are so cute that I put them on my wish list! You can get them if you click on the photo or the link. This recipe had it's start from the Moosewood Restaurant Daily Special cookbook, but it was greatly transformed in our kitchen since it's a vegetarian recipe and the ham addition would not be welcome! It tasted great and I'll try my best to include all the changes I made, but keep sampling it and make it taste the way your family likes baked beans!2 C chopped onions
1/2 C diced celery
1 C diced carrots
2 Tbs. olive oil
1 Tbs. chili powder
3 tsp. Dijon or German mustard
2 C chicken stock
1 - 14.5 oz. can stewed tomatoes and juice (I used my homemade stewed tomatoes)
2- 15.5 oz. can white beans or pinto beans, or a combo, drained
1 Tbs. apple cider vinegar
3 Tbs. molasses
1-2 Tbs. brown sugar or another natural sweetener like sucanat
1 Tbs. soy sauce
3 Tbs. catsup
3-4 Tbs. tomato paste
1 C diced ham
several drops liquid smoke
ground pepper to taste
In a soup pot, saute the onion, celery, and carrots in the olive oil for about 10 minutes. Add the chili powder and continue to cook until the vegetables are tender, about 5 minutes. Stir in the remaining ingredients. Cover and bring to a boil. Then lower heat and gently simmer for about 15 minutes. Season with pepper to taste. An optional step is to use a hand held blender and puree the soup slightly to thicken it.
Alternately, this can be cooked in a crock pot. I did this for a ladies' soup and salad dinner, sauteing the vegetables first, then adding everything else to the crock pot and cooking the soup for about 4 hours on high and 2 hours on low. I think it gave it a nice flavor, like you'd get from the long cooking of baked beans. The ladies all enjoyed it!
