Pressure Cooker Senate Bean Soup

By RoketJSquerl

Ingredients

• 1 pound dried navy beans, sorted and rinsed
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• 2 quarts water
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 large onion, cut into 1/2 inch dice
• 2 cloves garlic, sliced
• 1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
• 1 1/2 pounds smoked ham hocks (or hambone and 1 pound of leftover ham)
• 8 cups water
• 1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
• Salt to taste (2 teaspoons more kosher salt?)
• Minced parsley for garnish

Details

Servings 6
Preparation time 15mins
Cooking time 90mins
Adapted from dadcooksdinner.com

Preparation

Step 1

Sort the navy beans, removing broken beans, stones, or dirt clods. Rinse the beans and put them in a large container with the salt. Cover with 2 quarts water. Let the beans soak for at least 8 hours, or overnight.

Sort the navy beans, removing broken beans, stones, or dirt clods. Rinse the beans, put them in the pressure cooker pot, add the salt, and cover with 2 quarts water. Lock the lid, bring the pressure cooker up to high pressure, and cook for 3 minutes at high pressure (stovetop or electric PC). Let the pressure come down naturally (about 20 minutes - there’s a lot of water to cool down), then drain and rinse the beans.

Heat the butter in the pressure cooker pot over medium-high heat until it stops foaming. Add the onion, garlic, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Saute until the onions are softened and browning around the edges, about 8 minutes.

Rinse the navy beans, drain, and add to the pressure cooker. Add the ham hocks to the pot, then pour the water over everything. Lock the lid on the pressure cooker, and cook at high pressure for 12 minutes in an electric PC, or 10 minutes in a stovetop PC. Let the pressure release naturally, about 15 minutes. Remove the lid carefully, opening away from you - even when it’s not under pressure, the steam in the cooker is very hot.

Shred the ham hock, season, and serve:

Remove the ham hock from the pot with a slotted spoon or tongs, and set aside to cool. Ladle 2 cups of beans into a blender and puree the beans, then stir back into the pot. (I use my stick blender for this step, and ladle the beans into a quart pyrex container). When the ham is cool enough to handle, shred it, then stir the ham back into the pot. Stir in the fresh ground black pepper. Now, taste the soup, and add salt until the soup tastes sweet and full of body, and you can just feel the taste of salt on the tip of your tongue. (I added 2 teaspoons of kosher salt to get the taste I wanted.) Serve.

Forgot to soak? Sort and rinse the beans, then put them in the pressure cooker and increase the cooking time to 25 minutes at high pressure in a stovetop PC, 30 minutes in an electric PC. Let the pressure come down naturally.

Please, do not forget to season to taste at the end! Soup tastes bland and flat without added salt. Don’t worry if it seems like a lot of salt – you’re still adding a lot less salt than you’d get in canned beans.