15-Bean Sausage and Pulled Pork Soup

A 15-bean soup mix caught my eye so I decided to whip up a “kitchen sink” soup with it this evening.

Purchased this package


and discarded the seasoning packet, then washed and picked over the beans.


An overnight soak would work fine, but I wanted dinner in an hour, so the dry beans went into the pressure cooker for 25 minutes along with 50/50 chicken stock/water, a bit of oil and salt to keep the foaming down, bay leaves from the garden and some celery and carrot for flavor.

Figuring that the beans would benefit from the addition of rice to make a complete protein complement, I put some organic basmati rice on to cook.

While the beans were cooking, I checked the freezer and withdrew some pulled pork (previously Egged and Foodsavered) and a package of turkey sausage, then defrosted them using circulating water:




To defat the sausage and enhance its flavor I decided a brief visit to Mr. Egg might help:


As the beans were finishing up, I sweated some carrot, onion and celery in a stock pot:


and made a gremolata from the tops of the celery along with a bit of rosemary from my garden (from top left inside saucer: rosemary, garlic, celery leaves, lemon peel).


I then combined the cooked beans with the sweated root vegetables and the cooked meat, and let the stock pot simmer for 10 minutes to pull everything together before tasting and correcting seasoning.

Served gumbo-style, with the soup atop the rice, then topped with the gremolata. As an aside to the home gardeners, table is set with “Seminole Pink” hibiscus and “Endless Summer” hydrangea:


This was a satisfying meal, filling but not heavy, just a bit of smoke from the sausage and pulled pork but also some brightness from the gremolata. For this bean mix 20 minutes in the pressure cooker would have been plenty, as the tiniest beans were overcooked and a bit mushy.

In conclusion, this cook is cheap, fast, healthy, and a good alternative to sandwiches or ABTs for using up pulled pork in the freezer. The sausage and pork were Egged, and the whole soup could have been made entirely in the Egg, but due to the short cook time there are no particular advantages to doing the soup there. I’ll make this one again.