Slow-Cooker Soybean Soup

This recipe comes to you from Virginia. Growing-up, soybeans were never a central feature on our dining table; however, we have come to love and appreciate their toasty, caramel-like flavor in many forms as well as the incredible nutritional benefits. This is a basic recipe that slow-cooks the soybeans into a base that can be transformed into many shapes and flavors…including one of our personal favorites – Ben’s Soybean Sofritas (like Chipotle…only different) that we will feature next week in the Firefly Fields Kitchen. We like to cook beans on the weekend, and then use them throughout the week in various ways such as throwing them on a salad, meat-less taco-filling Tuesday, bean and cheese dip with nachos, and other purposes as well! That’s pretty much how we do beans in our house. Cook a bunch of beans for a base on the weekend, and mix, mash, flip, flop them into new, easy, simple creations during the busy work week! We call that 4F: Farm Fresh Fast Food!!

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of dry organic soybeans
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1/2 cup of ketchup
• 2 tablespoons of molasses
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon coriander
• 1 teaspoon mustard
• 1 teaspoon soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• Garnish with salsa, sour cream, and lime

This is a simple starter for cooking soybeans that can be re-purposed throughout the week (see other recipes for soybean uses). Soybeans taste fairly subtle and can take on many different flavors depending on your seasonings. Play around and have FUN with it! Make sure to cook soybeans until you can pinch them easily between your thumb and ring finger.

• Soak soybeans in water overnight covering them with plenty of water – for every cup of beans, add 3 cups of water (8-10 hours)
• Use your hand to churn the soaked soybeans to help remove hulls that will float to surface
• Rinse soybeans over a colander and drain

wikiHow to clean soybeans at https://www.wikihow.com/Cook-Soybeans

• Place beans in the cooker in soaking water
• Cook on high for 3 hours
• Add all remaining ingredients to the cooker and stir
• Cook on low for 10-12 hours or until tender
• Serve up with a few squeezes of lime juice, some salsa, and a dalop of sour cream

Bon Appetit!