Green Bean Soup

This green bean soup recipe is a classic in our Mennonite family heritage. Cooking with homegrown green beans, potatoes and summer savory from the garden really brings out fresh flavour in this soup.

Any number of smoked pork products can be used to make this broth. Leftover ham or ham bone, farmer sausage, or smoked pork hock. This is not a recipe in which to leave out the meat!

To make ham stock, take a smoked hock, or leftover ham bone and cover with two quarts of water, maybe a bit more to take evaporation into account. Simmer until the meat falls off the bone when you lift it out, at least an hour.

If cooking with farmer sausage, I skip this step, and add vegetable, chicken or ham bouillon. Broth would work as well. In any case, whether with ham stock, sausage or broth, if the soup is lacking flavour, add some bouillon.

Use the instructions on the bouillon package as a guide, but less is likely needed because of the meat. Often, bouillon, ham and sausage have enough salt that additional salt is unnecessary.

Don’t tell any Mennonites, but if you just can’t find summer savory, you might try substituting with dill. Don’t tell anyone you heard it from me! If you don’t grow your own summer savory, try a more specialized grocer or kitchen supply store. Locally, I would be able to find it at Sobeys or Stonybrook Pantry.

In the past, I have put summer savory in freezer bags in the freezer. Super easy! More recently, I have air dried summer savory, stripped the leaves off the stems, and stored them in a jar in my pantry. Check out how to air dry herbs in this article.

You can let it be known that I have used other kinds of beans, such as yellow wax beans and burgundy beans. I like them because they are easier to see when picking in the garden! They are long and straight and easy to snap into pieces. I did not appreciate the string beans that made it into the package of wax beans. I steer clear of string beans. “I had a bad experience.”

I grew up with sour cream in the refrigerator, though, to be honest, I wasn’t a big fan. Maybe it’s an acquired taste. In recent years, I’ve fermented my own yogurt, and this year I was given some kefir grains to ferment kefir.

Why was I making yogurt?! Kefir is so easy, and has more probiotics than yogurt for a healthy gut. Just add milk and let it sit on the counter for a day or two! Strain out the kefir grains and start again.

Sour cream, yogurt and kefir are all slightly different, but I use them interchangeably.

Like many homemade soups, this one is even better the next day, after the herbs have had more time to steep. So bring on the leftovers, if there are any!