Recipe: Navy Bean Chowder

Today was one of those "happy accident" days. I was looking around trying to figure out how to prepare some dry navy beans that I had purchased. I found a recipe that gave me some inspiration. I did some major alterations to it, and then I overcooked the beans so that it was too mushy to be useful as a side dish item. But hey, it looked like it could be turned into decent soup... which is what I did.

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Makes about 4 cups
Serves 6 to 8

Ingredients

• 1-1/2 cups dry navy beans
• 1 medium yellow onion
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 tsp. each dried thyme, rosemary, and basil
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1 tbsp. unsalted butter
• 1 tbsp. olive oil
• Salt (1/2 to 1 tbsp.) and ground white pepper (1/2 - 1 tsp.) to taste

Instructions

1. Soak dry beans according to bag directions. Drain and rinse.
2. Place beans into a medium pot, fill with water so that beans are covered by 2-inches of water on top. Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer for 30 to 60 minutes until slightly less than desired tenderness is reached.
3. While the beans are cooking in step 2, chop onion and mince garlic (or use garlic press). In a mortar and pestle, finely grind thyme, rosemary, and basil.
4. When ready, place chopped onions, minced garlic, and ground spices into pot. Stir to mix, bring back to slight boil, then cover and continue to simmer for another 20 minutes.
5. Reserve 1/2 cup of cooking liquid and drain the rest. Place beans and reserved liquid back into the pot, and add 1/2 cup of heavy cream, butter, and olive oil. Stir to mix and bring to boil on medium heat, then simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, for about 5 more minutes.