Skip the can – this Homemade Bean and Bacon Soup is hearty and filling and filled with veggies and chunks of bacon!
Growing up, Sundays were always the same. If we had morning church, we would come home from church, and lunch would be soup and sandwiches. I don’t remember ever having anything but soup and sandwiches for lunch on Sundays.
My mom would heat up several different kinds of canned soup, then make up a bunch of peanut butter sandwiches. We are a family that likes to dip, and peanut butter sandwiches got dipped into the soup. So the majority of the sandwiches were just peanut butter, but there were always some with peanut butter and honey. (And for the record – I must have always loved the sweet and salty combination, because to this day, I love a peanut butter and honey sandwich dipped into my soup!)
One of my favorites on those Sunday afternoons was the bean with bacon soup. I don’t know why I loved it so much, but I would always choose it over the chicken noodle or split pea with ham.
Well, my daughter has this love of soup. She would probably eat homemade soup every day if I made it for her, but since that’s just not possible 🙂 we always have a few cans of chicken noodle soup on hand. That girl can eat an entire can of soup for lunch herself.
One day, at the grocery store, I was letting her choose out a few cans of soup. And there I saw it – the Bean with Bacon soup. I decided to buy a can to have on hand for if I ever wanted to eat it for lunch.
Fast forward a few weeks, and my daughter gets home from school, asking for soup for lunch. I go to the pantry, and not a can of her beloved chicken noodle soup left. She sees my can of Bean and Bacon soup, and asks for it. I begrudgingly say yes.
And then she only eats like 2 bites of the soup. After she left the table, I decide to eat a bowl of it for lunch since it was already open and out.
And I ate about 2 bites of it and was done.
I don’t know if my tastebuds have just grown up, or what, but I did not like it. It tasted overwhelmingly of smoke, and not like real smoke. Like liquid smoke.
It tasted completely fake.
I was sad, but only for a minute. Because right then, I decided that I needed to make a homemade bean and bacon soup – with flavor from real smoked bacon.
One eye opener for me when I visited the Culinary Institute of America with Jones Dairy Farm last year was that a lot of companies use liquid smoke to flavor their meats and bacon. I felt duped. When something says smoked, I’m thinking it’s actually spent some time in a smoker, but that isn’t always the case.
For my soup, I knew I wanted actual smoked bacon, not liquid smoke or bacon that had been flavored with liquid smoke. So naturally, I chose my favorite Jones Dairy Farm bacon – their Dry Aged Cherrywood Smoked Bacon. I’ve said it here a thousand times before, but no other bacon compares to this bacon in my eyes.
After choosing the perfect bacon, the rest was pretty easy. Some beans, veggies and chicken broth are cooked together. Half of the mixture is pureed to give you that thick, creamy texture. Add in some tomato sauce and stir in the bacon – it’s the soup that blows that soup of my childhood out of the water. Seriously – this bean and bacon soup was so good – there will be no more cans of soup in my future!
WATCH HOW TO MAKE THIS HOMEMADE BEAN AND BACON SOUP BELOW!
Homemade Bean and Bacon Soup
Ingredients
- 8 oz. Jones Dairy Farm Cherry Hardwood Smoked Bacon diced
- 1 cup diced yellow onions
- 1 cup diced carrots
- 1 cup diced celery
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 4 cups chicken broth
- 3 cans 15 oz each Great Northern beans, drained and rinsed
- salt and pepper
- 1 can 8 oz tomato sauce
Instructions
- Cook the bacon in a soup pot or Dutch oven until crisp. Remove with a slotted spoon to a paper towel lined plate. Discard all but about 2 tablespoons of the bacon grease.
- To the hot bacon grease, add the onions, carrots and celery. Cook over medium heat until they start to soften, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook an additional minute. Stir in the chicken broth and beans. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Bring to a bubble then reduce the heat to low and let the soup simmer for 1 hour.
- Remove half of the soup to a blender or food processor. Process until smooth. Return the puree to the soup pot and stir into the remaining soup. Add the tomato sauce and 3/4 of the reserved bacon and stir to combine. Taste and season to taste with salt and pepper. Let the soup simmer until it is heated through, about 5 minutes. Serve topped with the remaining bacon.
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Jill says
Hi
Yum can’t, wait to try but I’m also in Australia so will wait till winter. I have another ingredients question- the beans, what type are they rather than the brand that we can’t get. Cannellini beans? Also is a can of Tomato sauce, small can of tomato paste (concentrate) or ketchup type or prepared pasta sauce? So many questions! Thanks in anticipation.
Jilly
Deborah says
Hi Jilly – cannellini beans would work just fine. Any white bean will probably work. Tomato sauce is a simple sauce made of cooked tomatoes with usually just salt and minimal seasonings. If you use tomato paste, you’ll want to cut the amount way back to probably a tablespoon or two. I wouldn’t use ketchup, but prepared pasta sauce *might* work. I think your best bet would be to just use the paste. You’ll want to thin it out a bit with some of the liquid from the soup before stirring it in, though. Good luck!
Melissa says
Hi Jill, passata would be the same as their tomato sauce. That is readily available in Australia.
Amy says
Could you substitute the kind of beans?
Deborah says
I don’t see why not!!
janet says
thanks for this!! I love bean and bacon soup (the canned variety). I made a big change and used dried beans, and halved the recipe (it’s just me eating this). It’s in the crockpot to simmer all day for dinner tonite! I cheated and tasted already, I won’t add the tomatoes until this evening (I had to use roasted I had in the freezer, no sauce).
Deborah says
I love the idea of sticking it in the slow cooker!! I hope you loved it as much as we did!
janet says
it was great in the crock pot – although due to a repairman here at dinnertime, it cooked a bit too long – but the soup is wonderful!! I told my friend in Dallas, she made it as well (her husband loves bean and bacon) – it was a hit with everyone!
Kathryn Kivett says
Using dried beans, should I soak beans before cooking in crockpot? Sounds delish!
Deborah says
I don’t normally cook with dry beans, but I would probably soak the beans overnight before adding them to a slow cooker.
Cassie Wallace says
I cook dried beans overnight, no soaking, in my crock pot. Make sure you have 4-5 inches of water above the beans, so that the water doesn’t cook out in the night. On low 12 hours. Perfect beans in the morning! Then you can use them for recipes like this or White Bean Chicken Chili!
Kelly says
I cook dry beans in the crockpot all the time. I do not soak ahead, never have. They always turn out great. Now when I cook beans I never thought of making soup, but that is going to change real fast because bean and bacon soup has always been a favorite of mine
Sheree says
Made this tonight for the family, and it was delicious. I asked if it was a “make again” meal, and the family said yes. I would love to try it in the slow cooker, too.
To address two questions I saw: 1) I cook beans in the slow cooker a lot, and I rinse them, but I don’t soak them first. 2) You could easily substitute any white beans available at your market.
Missy says
I never used to pre-soak dry beans until I learned that pre-soaking and rinsing eliminates the gas that beans can cause!
Josephine B says
I’m an Australian living in Sydney and we’re in our summer right now, but can’t wait until our winter to try this. My only questions though is – what can I use in place of the SMOKED bacon as we only have regular cured bacon. I have travelled throughout the States extensively and found that your supermarkets have an immensely larger range of food-stuffs than we do. I have found a warehouse here that imports a very few of your products including a little bottle of liquid smoke which we can’t buy here in our regular supermarkets. So, could I use a drop or two of that. I haven’t actually used it before as I’ve only just bought it in the past week.
Deborah says
You could use the liquid smoke to give you the smoky flavor – just use a light hand because I often think the liquid smoke ends up tasting artificial. And really, if you aren’t accustomed to the smoky flavor of bacon like I am 🙂 you could probably use the regular cured bacon and be just fine!
Sandy jackson says
Josephine my Daughter lives in New Zealand. You can use streaky bacon, ham hocks or cubed ham. In Wellington there is a great butcher that is fantastic at helping this Yank find substuites for American cuts of meats when I visit. Good Luck.
Lisa says
Josephine,
Instead of liquid smoke, if you have smoked paprika available where you are, it has an even more intense smoked flavor than the liquid smoke, but does not taste fake. I used to use liquid smoke all the time until I discovered smoked paprika.
Rick says
This is a fantastic idea. I love smoked paprika.
Will definitely try this recipe as bean with bacon soup is one of my all time favorites….even the canned variety occasionally (Though nothing goes directly from the can to my bowl with being “doctored” up a bit with some of my favorite seasonings. This recipe seems a bit lean on seasonings to me but I always make a new recipe as written the first time before deciding what if any additions to include in later versions.
Virginia S says
Can you get smoked ham? That would be a good substitute, perhaps sliced ham
Shel says
I am so glad to hear I am not the only one! The canned Bean w/Bacon soup was always my favorite, but the last few times I’ve tried it, it was NOT good! I can’t wait to try your recipe. Thank you!
Chels R. says
Oh, I love this! I can’t wait to make this!
Maureen says
I love homemade soups. Thanks for this one, I haven’t even thought of Bean n Bacon soup in years. My love of soup comes from my dad – he was always making soup, and I think of him every week when I make a batch of soup. Yes, I put the pot on the stove early on Saturday or Sunday mornings, and clean out my refrigerator of all vegetables, chop and dump them in the pot with some appropriately flavored broth and meat…yum! Soups can be frozen in individual portions for several months, so each time I reserve 2-3 servings and freeze the rest. That way I don’t have to eat the same one until it’s gone. My favorites are Beef Barley (Dad’s recipe) and Oxtail soup (my Polish Grandma’s recipe) and Cilantro lime chicken. Also, whenever I make meat of any kind (baked, boiled, fried, it doesn’t matter) I reserve the juices and freeze them for broth. After dinner the veggies get frozen for my next batch of soup. When chopping veggies for meals, the celery tops, cilantro stems, green onion tops, 1/2 a jalapeno, whatever does not fit the recipe go into the baggie of veggies to the freezer for my next batch of soup. Have all the leftover juice in the bottom of a bowl of pico de gallo? Freeze it for broth! Boil or steam veggies? Freeze the water for broth!
As you can probably tell, next to nothing goes down my garbage disposal, and anything not edible goes back to the garden for mulch. And I have homemade soup available any time of the day for a meal or snack. I think I need to try your peanut butter sandwich dunked in my soup for lunch today! Yummy idea!
lana smith says
WOW! What great ideas Maureen…thank you for sharing…
cheryl says
I agree! Great ideas! Thank you, Maureen!
Becky says
This is very good. Simple and delicious, a definite keeper. Thanks!
Chris says
I used to keep soup jars in my freezer. Leftover broth, gravy, veggies and meat would go in the jar. I kept one for chicken and one for beef. I would thaw the jars and add whatever else I needed to make a great pot of soup!
Thalia @ butter and brioche says
This bean and bacon soup just looks so comforting and hearty. Thanks for the delicious recipe!
Ashley@blondegirlcravings says
This looks soooo yummy, and I love the short ingredient list!
Carol at Wild Goose Tea says
Gak—soup in a can. Gak again. Man once you eat homemade soup, you can’t go back to soup in a can. Homemade bean and bacon—Wowzer. I love that bean soup. I should capitalize love in that prior sentence. I am delighted your daughter has discriminating taste buds. I bet you were/are part of that process—-ya think.
Bryn says
This looked so yummy I made it today :). So easy and a big hit! I didn’t realize until it came time for the tomato sauce that I was out. Ugh. So I thinned out paste and used it instead. Thanks for the great recipe!
Stephanie @ Plain Chicken says
LOVE Bean with Bacon Soup – I can not wait to try this homemade version. I can only imagine how great it will taste!
Renee @ Tortillas and Honey says
This soup looks so simple and flavorful! How can you not love a soup that has 1/2 pound of bacon! 🙂
Lauren @ Healthy Delicious says
mmmm this looks so creamy and delicious! I’m a huge fan of soup but I don’t think I’ve ever dunked a pb sandwich into it!
jodie michael says
I put a PBJ in a bowl then cover with Bean & Bacon Soup yummy
Odessa says
You what!?! Please tell me I need to know
Liz says
My very favorite soup. Thanks so much.
Toni | BoulderLocavore says
I’m with your daughter Deborah, I’d eat homemade soup every day (if you made it for me!). I used to eat Bean and Bacon Soup from a can and candidly it is not a soup that has crossed my mind to make from scratch. Like most recipes I’m sure it’s better and soul-warming. Thanks for forging ahead so I now can make it!
arlene says
Love bean with bacon, canned is too exspensive & yuk is right love home made!!!
Fav soup, now home made only canned YUK & exspensive
Rick Grunwald says
This is a pressure cooker recipe waiting to be born. Each can is about 12 -13 oz of cooked beans so about a pound of dry beans …
Janet says
I wish!
Andrea says
I just made this recipe in my electric pressure cooker. I doubled the recipe for our big family and it fit in my 6 qt pot. I browned the bacon in the pressure cooker and then followed the instructions as given. I added 1 pound of dry great northern beans and 2 cups of dry white beans and 8 cups of liquid (remember I doubled the recipe). I did add some of the bacon to cook with the beans. I then used my bean setting for 1 hour and the beans were done just right (which for me is very soft). I blended and added bacon and tomato sauce according to the recipe. It was amazing! Bean with bacon is one of my favorite soups and this recipe is so tasty!
Mike says
I did it today. Came out great in pressure cooker. Used chili setting