Hearty Pork Bean Soup

Third week of pandemic. I have been cooking every day, which is what I do when I need to feel capable in a situation I cannot control. The sourdough starter I began last week is bubbling and alive. I have been feeding it twice a day and it has become a small living thing in my kitchen that requires care, which in a week when very little is required of me is oddly grounding.

The furlough continues. Unemployment is approved. The fellowship stipend starts in September. I have eight months of emergency fund. I am in the best financial position of my life and I am still scared in the specific way that people who have known real scarcity are scared when scarcity feels close again. The fear is not proportional to the actual risk. It is the memory of an older risk, speaking in the present tense.

I have been writing about this for the blog. Two posts already this week: one about what to do with dried beans when that is what you have, with specific recipes and techniques. One about the particular anxiety of food insecurity and how cooking from scratch can be both a practical response and a psychological one. The posts have been shared widely. Apparently many people are in their kitchens feeling the same things. I have been responding to every email and the inbox is full and I do not stop responding because each email represents a person who needed to hear that someone else knows what this feels like.

The dried beans post I wrote that week was the most practical thing I could offer anyone, and this soup is essentially what I was describing when I wrote it — beans you soaked the night before, a piece of pork from the back of the freezer, vegetables that were still holding on, all of it simmered low and slow into something that felt like an answer. There is a specific satisfaction in making something hearty and real from what you already have, and in a week when the fear in my chest was older and louder than the actual facts of my life, this pot of soup was the thing that made the kitchen feel like mine again. It does not require a grocery run. It only requires time, and in those weeks, time was the one thing we all had.

Prep Time: 20 minutes (plus overnight soak) | Cook Time: 2 hours | Total Time: 2 hours 20 minutes | Servings: 8

Ingredients

1 lb dried navy beans or Great Northern beans, rinsed and soaked overnight
1 lb boneless pork shoulder, cut into 1-inch pieces (or 1 large ham hock)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large yellow onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 medium carrots, peeled and sliced into coins
3 stalks celery, chopped
6 cups low-sodium chicken or vegetable broth
2 cups water
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
Salt to taste
2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped (optional, for serving)

Instructions

Soak the beans. The night before, place dried beans in a large bowl and cover with cold water by at least 3 inches. Let soak 8–12 hours, then drain and rinse.
Brown the pork. Heat olive oil in a large heavy-bottomed pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add pork pieces in a single layer and brown on all sides, about 6–8 minutes total. Remove pork and set aside. (If using a ham hock, skip this step.)
Soften the aromatics. Reduce heat to medium. Add onion and celery to the same pot and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook 1 minute more until fragrant.
Build the soup. Add carrots, drained beans, broth, water, bay leaf, thyme, smoked paprika, and black pepper. Return the browned pork to the pot. Stir to combine and bring to a boil over high heat.
Simmer low and slow. Once boiling, reduce heat to low, cover partially, and simmer for 1 hour 30 minutes to 2 hours, until beans are completely tender and creamy and pork is falling apart. Stir occasionally and add a splash of water if the soup thickens too much.
Season and finish. Remove the bay leaf. Taste and season with salt. For a thicker broth, use a spoon to mash a cup of the beans against the side of the pot and stir them back in. Ladle into bowls and top with fresh parsley if using.

Nutrition (per serving)

Hearty Pork Bean Soup — What You Make When the Pantry Is Enough