15 Bean Soup

Have you ever planned for an emergency which involves feeding yourself for a few days without benefit of electricity? In Florida we are encouraged to keep a supply of food, water, medicines and essentials in the event a natural disaster.

For Floridians, the emergency situation is usually a hurricane. They roar into our lives as an unwanted guest and have caused us to be without electricity, and even water, for several days. Of course this depends on the severity of the storm and your locale. We are in a rural area so, not a huge priority when larger metropolitan areas surrounding us lose utilities.



In the event you are the unfortunate recipient of a visiting hurricane, tornado, , zombie attack, military takeover, etc. it sure would be handy to have a shelf with bottled water, cans of food you can heat using Sterno, a gas camp stove or grill, dried foods, and the means to sustain yourself.



Here is a very good list from FEMA which will get you started. Please consider your pets when planning for these emergencies – they need food and comfort items too!

Let me share a terrific soup for hard times which you can prepare and cook using a camping stove.

This 15 bean soup contains these varieties: Northern, Pinto, Large Lima, Blackeye, Garbanzo, Baby Lima, Green Split, Kidney, Cranberry, Small White, Pink, Small Red, Yellow Split, Lentil, Navy, White Kidney, Black Bean.



Hopefully you have water on hand - you can soak the beans overnight without worrying about refrigeration. Fortunately I had a slow cooker (and obviously electricity) but this is certainly something I could cook over Sterno or a camping stove. It has lots of protein as you may imagine with all those beans!



Next time I make this I will divide the package since there is only the two of us. This package makes 16 servings. Oh, another nice thing about dried beans as a source for emergency food with protein is that is has a fantastically long shelf life. You can purchase dried beans at a low cost and it just sits on the shelf, waiting for you to be in the mood for it.

Ingredients

1- Package Hurst's® 15 Bean Soup
1 lb. ham, ham hocks, or smoked sausage (I used smoked sausage)
1 cup onion, chopped
1 15 oz. can diced or stewed tomatoes
1 tsp. chili powder
Juice from 1 lemon
1-2 cloves minced garlic


Cooking Directions
Traditional Method:
Soaking- Place beans in a large pot, cover with 2 quarts of water. Allow beans to soak overnight, or at least 8 hours.
After soaking, drain excess water, and add 2 quarts of fresh water and meat.
Bring to a rolling boil, reduce the heat and simmer uncovered for 2.5 hours.
After simmering, add onion, tomatoes, chili powder, lemon and garlic. Simmer for an additional 30 minutes.



Don't forget to start your preparation list and have a plan of action for emergencies!!