I am an Appalachian "kid" and bean soup was a staple in our family. Here is a little trick I learned. Cover your beans, nothing else added, with cold water, and bring to a solid boil for about 10 minutes. Remove the pan DON'T DRAIN and SET THE PAN IN YOUR SINK. Throw in about 1/4 cup baking soda, (in the hills it's a handful) and stir like crazy until the foam that will appear disappears, (don't worry if the foam looks green). Drain and rinse very well in cold water to remove all the soda flavor, then start recooking according to the directions. Doing this, you won't have to soak the beans, it cuts your cooking time, and removes maybe not all, but most of the "gas". More soda, less gas. The reason for setting the pan in the sink is that it will foam quite a bit and could go over the sides of your pan. BTW, never used a bay leaf in my life for bean soup.

I boil the beans in enough water just to cover them 2x, discarding the water both times. It gets rid of the "gas" without adding extra sodium that using baking soda provides. Then I add enough water for the recipe, bring the beans to a boil, and add the ham bone, or ham hocks, or fried & crumbled bacon if I have no ham. Simmer until beans are just tender. Add the carrots and celery, and also try adding a coarsely diced green pepper; cook about 20 minutes more. Meanwhile, I dice the onion as finely as I have patience to do, and fry it up in bacon grease. When it's tender, I add a mixture of flour (about 1/4 cup), paprika (about 3 TBLS) and lots of black pepper. Add this to the soup, and stir and stir - the flour will just barely thicken the soup. This soup gets raves. Contact me for canning instructions.

I really liked this dish, but I did change a few things. As suggested by other reviewers, I used about 5 cups of chicken broth and 2 cups of water (I omitted the salt altogether). I followed the recipe directions for the beans and they turned out great. I increased the amount of vegetables though and would probably increase to about a cup of each in the future. Once the soup was done, I removed about 1.5 cups of soup and pureed it with my hand blender, added about 1/4 cup ketchp and added that back to the soup. The ketchup added really great flavour and the puree gave the soup a really nice consistency. Apart from adding more vegetables, I will increase the liquid for this soup next time as we did find it a bit more "stew" (rather than soup) like. Great recipe, thanks!

Very good recipe. I thought it was missing something so I did add what my father made when I was young. He used to add ketchup, much like a couple of the other reviewers mentioned. Instead, I added a large can of whole tomatoes. Also, I added about four diced potatoes right near the last 40 minutes. Potatoes make it thicker, which I prefer. I also omitted the salt. Very good with cornbread.

I soaked my beans overnight, like I always do. I put all the ingredients into a slowcooker, set it on low and at dinnertime we had bean soup like I remembered! I grew up putting ketchup in my soup and eating it ladled over thick slices of homemade bread! YUM

This is very similar to my recipe for bean soup and it's excellent! The only thing I do differently, is that I cook everything together, rather than adding the veggies later and cook on low for 5-6 hours. Just before serving, I add 1/4 cup of instant potato flakes to slightly thicken the stock. Don't forget to remove the bay leaf before serving!

I've always made my ham and navy bean soup this way, with the addition of a can of diced tomatoes or of plain tomato sauce (if the kids didn't want tomato chunks). Season to taste. sometimes I add a bit of thyme as well. Kids always like it and it's a nice hearty soup for the winter.

This was wonderful soup! Next time I will soak the beans overnight, as I had to cook it about an hour longer to soften up the beans more. Great recipe!

As others recommended, I used the baking soda method for the beans. This recipe was a great base for spicing up! I used 2 whole medium onions - chopped and a whole cup of chopped carrots (didnt use celery as I don't like). I increased the water to 7 cups & chicken broth to 5 cups. I used 2tbsp of minced garlic, 2tsp of ground cumin, couple shakes of black pepper & 1tbsp diced jalapenos. Lastly, after pureeing half the soup, I simmered for an additional hour. This came out wonderful & the family loved it!!!

Right after cooking, the soup is pretty bland. Much better after it sits in the refrigerator overnight. I think adding chicken broth, garlic and/or liquid smoke would help make recipe more flavorful.