Since this is a favorite soup of ours, we make a huge stockpot of it, and freeze portions for future meals. I like that I can make lots of soup without using up a bunch of our canned broths…

Hydrate 2 pounds+4 ounces of dried beans. (Click here for my “bean formula” & how we prepare our beans.)

Once hydrated, place in 8 quart stock pot with 6 quarts of water.

Add:

1-1/2 pounds cooked & drained ground beef

2 quarts of whole tomatoes, crushed

3 cups of chopped celery

3 T sea salt

3 t dried parsley flakes

6 garlic cloves, minced

3 t dried thyme

6 bay leaves

1 T coarse pepper

a couple whole hot peppers, optional

Cover the pot & allow soup to simmer for hours, stirring occasionally. It tastes great the day you make it, but gets better & better as days go by! (May need to remove the hot peppers after the first day or so, depending on how spicy you like your soup!) 🙂