‘Save that Pork Juice 16 Bean Soup’
Whoa. This early morning was officially the first pull the coat out of the closet your going to need it day.
Brrr. First day of put on your coat in the early morning also snaps me right into the mode that the beautiful season of fall is indeed upon us, and I can finally buy some bright colored mums and be inspired by a little fall decorating, along with some apple picking too. The first chill also has me real excited to share with you a new season favorite, I call it ‘Save that Pork Juice 16 Bean Soup.’
The soup came about while helping to clean up after a friends party in the early spring, when the remaining accumulated juice from the pork in the slow cooker was about to get poured straight down the drain. Of course, I didn’t yell out ‘Save that Pork Juice 16 Bean Soup,’ though I did quickly intervene on straining and saving the Pork juice before later instructing on its tasty possibilities.
Really you can use any remaining juices and broths from the Dutch Oven to your slow cooker to magically transform your soups into having much tastier flavor profiles beginning your process simply following soup making basics then combining your given amount of flavored juices with other broth, or even water, to equal the amount of liquid needed.
Beans of course, absorb a lot of liquid. You can even label and freeze any remaining juices, saving them for later on if you’ve not the time to make soup shortly after preparing the dish from where you collected the juice.
You could even get really crazy and combine a few different types of saved frozen juices for your soup. The key point to remember from gatherings with family and friends to Slow Cooker specials at a Tailgate or Team Family Dinner is: ‘Save that Pork Juice’ and later then you too can enjoy creating your own seasonal favorite like my ‘Save that Pork Juice 16 Bean Soup.’
'Save that Pork Juice 16 Bean Soup'
Notes
Don't discard those tasty accumulated juices from the Roast Pork in your Slow Cooker! Instead, soak a bag of the colorful 16 Bean Soup mixture overnight and use those pork juices to create a delicious, flavor filled soup the following day.
Recipe time reflects soup preparation and not the time for preparing a Slow Cooker Pork Roast, or soaking the beans overnight
Ingredients
- For Preparing the Slow Cooker Pork:
- 8 pound Pork Shoulder Picnic Roast Bone-In
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- coarse kosher salt, cracked black pepper, and garlic powder for sprinkling over the pork
- 1 1/2 cups water
- 1 onion, halved then sliced
- 3 bay leaves
- For the Roasted Cherry Tomatoes:
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- pinch coarse kosher salt
- a couple grinds fresh black pepper
- For Preparing the Soup:
- 16 ounce package GOYA 16 Beans
- 2-3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 3 carrots, peeled and chopped
- 2 stalks celery, chopped
- 5 sprigs fresh thyme, leaves removed from the stem
- a couple Bones reserved from the Slow Cooker Pork
- 1 - 1 1/2 quarts Pork Juice reserved from Slow Cooking the Pork
- 2 cups of chopped pork from the Slow Cooked Pork
- 1-1 1/2 quarts Beef Stock
- The Roasted Cherry Tomatoes
- 1 tablespoon coarse kosher salt, more or less as desired to taste
- few grinds fresh cracked black pepper
Instructions
- Preparing the Slow Cooker Pork: Sprinkle the pork all over with the spices. Heat a pan large enough to fit the roast, pour in olive oil, swirl around to cover pan then place roast fat side down and cook on medium temperature until nicely browned, continuing to brown pork on each side all around. Pour water into Slow Cooker then set in the browned Pork Roast, add in the bay leaves. Scatter over the sliced onion. Cook roast on very low heat following the the number of hours according to your Slow Cooker, until pork is completely tender, generally 4-6 hours. Cut a small chunk off of the pork and cut pork into cubes to make 2 cups. Transfer cubed pork to a container refrigerated and reserved for soup preparation. Wrap and set aside a couple of the Pork bones in aluminum foil, and refrigerate to use when soup is simmering. Strain the pork liquid remaining in the slow cooker and transfer to a covered plastic container in refrigerator until soup preparation
- Preparing the Roasted Cherry Tomatoes: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place cherry tomatoes into a small casserole large enough to not overcrowd the tomatoes, toss with oil, salt and pepper, set in oven and roast tomatoes until just near bursting, with perhaps some blistering, around 45 minutes to an hour. Remove, cool, refrigerate in a container until preparing the soup
- The Day Before Preparing the Soup: Rinse beans and sift through for any pebbles, (though I've yet to ever find a pebble in my beans, still...) Place beans into a stock pot and cover with cool water by a few inches, soak overnight, drain, rinse
- Preparing the Soup: Having soaked the beans overnight, heat soup pot on low heat, pour in olive oil, add in the onions, celery, carrots, and the reserved bones from the Slow Cooker Pork, cook on very low heat for ten minutes or a bit longer until vegetables are softened, stir in the thyme leaves. Tumble beans into the vegetable mixture, stir, heat through for a few minutes then pour in the reserved Pork Broth, beef stock, and the roasted cherry tomatoes. Increase temperature to high and cook until boiling then reduce heat to the lowest temperature and slowly simmer for around an hour and a half, taste to check done-ness of the largest sized beans. Once beans are tender, stir in the reserved chopped pork, simmer for ten minutes, sprinkle in the salt and pepper, stir, check seasoning and adjust to taste
- If serving at a later time, reheat the soup on low, adding in extra beef broth for thinning soup if needed, check seasoning again, adding in a bit more salt to desired taste.
4 Comments