Senate Bean soup is a famous soup that is flavorful, filling, and comforting. But in my mind, it needed to be made a bit more accessible for folks who don’t have all day to cook their beans, so this is my shortcut recipe. Fortunately, it tastes every bit as good as the old fashioned version.
You’ll need: 4 cans Navy beans, minced garlic, one onion, stick of butter or margarine, four chicken bullion cubes, 3 stalks celery, instant mashed potatoes, and a smoked turkey leg.
As far as instant mashed potatoes go, I didn’t even know such a thing existed until I was sixteen. I was invited to dinner at a friend’s house and her mom sent me into the pantry to get the potatoes. I went in there and looked all over the place trying to find the bag of potatoes and came out empty handed. She walked right in there and came out with a box. A box? I had to have that one explained to me and then went home and explained it to Mama! I love pretty much anything that makes life easier but I reserve instant potatoes for use as soup thickeners. They are really brilliant at that.
*Smoked Turkey Legs are pretty easy to find when you’re looking. I usually get mine from Walmart, Sam’s, Costco, etc. Usually near the smoked hamhocks and such.
Place bullion cubes in pot with six cups water (you can sub straight chicken broth for this if you prefer). Add turkey leg. Cover and bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer thirty minutes. Turkey leg does not have to be covered with water/broth.
Place butter in large skillet over medium heat. Add onion, celery, and garlic. Saute until lightly browned.
like this.
Remove turkey leg from broth and dice up when cool.
Add onion mixture, beans, and diced turkey. Stir in salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly, and reduce heat to simmer for thirty minutes before serving.
Oh my goodness, glorious comfort food on a chilly day!
I hope you get to make this soon!
This freezes VERY well. I took my leftovers and put them in a mason jar, leaving plenty of head space, and froze it to eat later.
“Later” ended up being the very next day but still…
Ingredients
- 4 15 ounce cans Navy Beans undrained
- 3 stalks celery chopped
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- 1 onion chopped
- 4 chicken bullion cubes or 6 cups chicken broth
- 1 smoked turkey leg
- 1 cup instant mashed potato flakes
- Stick margarine or butter 1/2 C
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon pepper
Instructions
- Place bullion cubes in pot with six cups water (you can sub straight chicken broth for this if you prefer). Add turkey leg. Cover and bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer thirty minutes. Turkey leg does not have to be covered with water/broth.
- Place butter in large skillet over medium heat. Add onion, celery, and garlic. Saute until lightly browned.
- Remove turkey leg from broth and dice up when cool. Add instant potatoes to broth and stir. Add onion mixture, beans, and diced turkey. Stir in salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly, and reduce heat to simmer for thirty minutes before serving.
Gentle reminder: We don’t talk politics on any of my platforms. This post was originally published in 2010. I updated the photos and post in 2020.
This recipe featured in Meal Plan Monday and Weekend Potluck!
Yum 
this reminds me of when my grandma would have been soup waiting for us when we came in running off the bus. 🙂 good memories and instant potatoes are amazing for quick soup fixes love it love it 🙂
Ain’t nothin’ like a memory with your Grandma in it!
So, 🙂 I learned not only how to make another great soup, but (yep buts are allowed anywhere in a sentence) I learned you can put Mason Jars in the freezer. So (one of my favorites again) be gone all you aggravating plastic containers that are everywhere hiding in the nether regions of my home, and mostly without lids. And am writing that blessing in stone,Mason Jars can go in freezer (with plenty of head space allowed). Bless you too.
So you know, Kim, that you’re totally awesome, right????
Cook your corn on the cob as usual. Cut it off and freeze in Mason jars, any size. I use pints for myself. Like Christy said, leave headspace for expansion or it will break the jar! When you are ready to use, put in microwave on defrost until it comes out of the jar. Add butter and salt and pepper and heat for about 3 minutes until ready. Tastes like you just cut it off. Silver Queen corn does well with this. Sometimes I just put a dollop of butter on top and finish it off in the jars. No plastic taste!
Be aware – speaking from experience – not all Mason jars can be used in the freezer. As a canner for decades, I do have some older jars. I froze quart jars of vegetable soup with plenty of headspace. When I removed and defrosted, the jar was in several pieces. There are no markings on jars to identify if they can be used in the freezer, only on the original box. Just a small heads up.
Christy – Did you know that you can buy ham base, not in the cubes like beef bouillon,I don’t think, but we have it here in our local grocery store in this little town I live in. It’s in a paste form with other bouillon above the canned soups and it is pretty wonderful stuff!! I always make my bean soup from scratch with northern beans and it really doesn’t take that long to get done – maybe a couple of hours. I NEVER soak the beans either. Just takes more time…. What a wonderful meal for a cold day, like today,along with those yummy looking Jordan rolls!!! I’ve made many of your recipes and your email is the first one I look for every day!!! Marlene
Hi Marlene,
What a great tip to share!! I have the little glass jars of ham base, turkey base, ckn base…all in my refrigerator right now, ready to add full-bodied flavor to whatever dish needs a particular flavor. Until now, it WAS my secret weapon. Hugs to you, SP friend, for giving everyone a shot at Chef of the Year status. The world will be a better place because of you ~winks~. Thanks to Christy for a great soup recipe too.
I did not know that!!! Now I have to look! Thank you!
Watch out when you buy the bases… some have MSG in them which is very high in sodium. Some have to be refrigerated and some don’t. I love them but can’t handle MSG-monosodium glutamate. You will love them, Christy!
Here’s my trick for ham seasoning in soups and beans. I go to The Honeybaked Ham store and buy a ham-bone. They sell hambones with LOTS of meat left on them for about six dollars. I boil that bone in a big pot of water and I end up with enough ham and ham stock to season several pots of beans that I freeze. It’s my quick and easy way to have yummy seasoned soups, peas and greens.
I didn’t know you could do that, either!!!
How cool!
“By the way, where IS the Senate restaurant and how do I get to eat there on my next trip to D.C.?”
To answer your question above, the Senate restaurant is in the Capitol Building on the Senate side. I used to work on The Hill and ate in the House restaurant alot, which is where else? — on the House side of the Capitol. They serve the bean soup there as well. It’s been many years since I worked there, but I can tell you the soup is outstandingly delicious…..
So my next question would be…
When are we chartering a Southern Plate bus and calling it a Field Trip?
Dear Christy
Do we have to write an essay about it afterwards?…..lol
sounds like fun lets go.the soup looks real good and I was wondering where the name came from thanks for explainging.have a blessed night and keep on cooking and shearing.one more question what did the marry Poppins and Bountifull mean?I know theres a good movie called trip to Bountifull.
LOL! Someone has outed my soup/stew thickener secret. I learned it when I had too much liquid in a pot of soup. As they say, “Necessity is the mother of invention.” For my navy bean soup, I just take my trusty old potato masher and mash a few beans to thicken it. When I use ham hocks, I pressure cook them first. The meat becomes very tender and the broth is a wonderful addition to the soup. I am so excited about your upcoming cookbook and can hardly wait. You have to be on cloud 9.
Hey Jane, thats brilliant!
I’m kinda on cloud 1..because everyone else is on cloud 2-9 and I’m looking around blinking and wondering how I even made it to cloud one, while they are all waving and carrying on saying “come ‘ere! come ‘ere! Join us!!” and I’m still thinking “but I’m the one who gives baths, cleans out ears, and wipes rears…I don’t belong on the upper clouds!”
hehe
It hasn’t really sunk in and I’ve really tried to get it to sink in but I guess it won’t ever make sense to me.
I am awfully grateful though!!!!
And your comment just made me so hungry… 🙂
I should have clarified, I mash the beans right in the pot and I pressure cook the smoked ham hocks for about 15-20 minutes. Sorry.
You wouldn’t believe all of the stuff that Mary Poppins left at our restaurant when y’all did your last photo shoot! It was like Christmas in our refrigerator! ;0)
Oh Christy my dear butter is one of those small luxuries in life that we must give ourselves occasionally. I buy both but save the butter for baking and for smearing all over warm homemade bread and unfrosted warm yellow cake. Simply divine! Thank you so much for such a great site and yet another wonderful recipe!
My question is…when the book signings start are you going to give us in the Southern Plate family a pass to the front of the line for an autograph? LOL
Congrat on Mary Poppins — she sounds heavenly!! And that butter — we never have real butter either.
Get a red marker and mark the calendar!!! I am jumping up and down for you…..you used REAL BUTTER!!! Butter makes everything better, in my opinion, and I always laugh at your references about cheap ingredients. A box of butter in my grocery store sells for $1.69 all day, every day. I will happily pay the difference to get the taste and texture that my “soul craves in real butter tee hee. This soup looks AMAZING and I shall look for ham hocks upon my next trip out into the arctic tundra for groceries. Say hello to Mary Poppins for all of us. ~waves to Ricky as he eats a saltine w/ butter on it~
Oh my gosh, I just love the way you ‘speak’! You’ve got such a way of making me feel like I was right there with you! I’m right there with you about the price of butter, and am currently rejoicing that our Walmart has them on sale for $1.50 a box!! Can you believe it?! I’m going to be making a batch of shortbread today.
I am so looking forward to seeing your book when it comes out! Do you think I can mail my copy to you for an autograph, so I can say that I knew you before you were big and famous and had no time for us small people? 😉
OK…I’m one of those SUPER literal people who can’t cook a THING without a recipe, so I just want to clarify, to be sure. The picture shows FOUR cans of Navy beans, and the recipe calls for 4, but the text under the pic says I need THREE cans. I’m using 4, right?? (unless you are expecting that I have a can waiting patiently in my pantry, for a chance to join the party, and I only need to PURCHASE 3?? HA!)
I don’t do math, Treva…you’re supposed to be reading my mind 🙂
I’ll go change it to four.
its four, honest.
ooh, i hate math, lol
Made this for dinner last night, and my husband LOVED it!! I did, too, so this will be a fantastic repeat in our household! Thanks!
That soup sounds wonderful, I will try it very, very soon. Other than the cost, my problem is that recipes calling for real butter don’t always tell you whether to buy salted or unsalted… I guess you could buy unsalted and then add salt if necessary. What do you recommend??
Hi Debbie. I don’t see that anyone answered your question, so I’ll start. I always use unsalted butter. Most recipes call for salt anyway, and this allows me to control the sodium and salt to our tastes. Hope that helps.
Mary is right on the money – great minds think alike (or whatever our minds are, Mary! lol).
I use unsalted when baking and cooking IF I am going to use butter because you can always add salt and most recipes already have it in there, but you can’t easily take the salt out.
Now if I were to buy butter specifically for crackers, I’d get salted…
hehe
Christy 🙂
Don’t you just love butter on saltine crackers. That is such a treat for me. I didn’t know anyone else did that.
This sounds wonderful! Thanks for the wonderful post and for the great quote. I stole it for my FB status.
There’s a restaurant in town that serves Senate Bean Soup as an appetizer or side item for the original price of 29 cents per bowl. They do require that you buy an entree with it or college students would be coming in and ordering 10 bowls and nothing else!
That’s so funny about Mary Poppins and the butter! I only use real butter. Julia Childs ate tons of it and she lived to be 92! I’m afraid of the chemicals in margarine. I don’t use a lot of it because I don’t bake much so I don’t know the price discrepancy between it and margarine. I have heard that margarine is supposedly better for the consistency some baked items because it’s less greasy.
I do the same Sonya… I read one time that margarine is only one molecule different from a form of plastic. I try to be somewhat careful about what I eat, but I am Southern (by the grace of God, of course) after all. I pay a tiny bit more for the real deal (STORE BRAND!) and save somewhere else.. its WORTH IT! lol
You ladies bring a lot of joy to a 60 yr. old SC boy stuck in New Jersey. “I’m stuck up here with Dixie on my mind” My wife is Italian and a great cook but trying to learn to cook Southern. She’s doing OK but loves this site. She still doesn’t have the Cornbread down the way I like it but I’ll give her an A for trying.
Howdy Lee! ~waves to you from Northeast Pennsylvania area~
I am a Georgia-born-and-raised-gal sitting here watching it snow outside and thinking….IF ONLY I were in Georgia right now! I would be more’n happy to fix you a big ol’ batch of my Dixie cornbread in my cast iron skillet and run it over if you need a cornbread “fix” and let you tell me about gorgeous South Carolina. Hang in there, SP friend, Spring is a’comin’. ~waves bye~
I have decided there are definitely some things in life that just can not be substituted. Toilet paper is one. The other is real butter for when I am baking. It really does make a difference. So I watch for them to run it on sale (yes, even then it is higher than margarine) and when they do I stock up my freezer. I used to buy the cheapest toilet paper and always margarine (whatever was on sale) but I decided rather than splurge on Starbucks or the daily newspaper (I can read the news online) I would stick to my name brand toilet paper and buy real butter! Makes life much nicer 🙂
~nods up and down in agreement~
amen, i’m with you on that
Lee, I’m with ya! I’m a southern gal (from all OVER the south) stuck in 16 degree weather in Michigan. I truly DO feel your pain.
Christy, Honey, you say, “There’s my grandmother’s chocolate pie! (Wait til I tell you what a Prop Stylist does!)” Have I missed this recipe? One of my fondest memories as a kid was getting to go get chocolate pie at Aunt Hattie’s Restaurant in St. Petersburg, FL. I even had a bet with my dearest Daddy that my sister would be a sister and not a brother. Sadly, my Daddy never got to pay-off that bet. I sure would like to be able to bake myself a really good chocolate pie and sit there and eat it and cry for missing my Dad.
~Gives you a big warm hug and hands you a tissue in the Michigan weather~
Thanks for the hug! Right back atcha! I lived in Georgia for 23 years before I had to move to Michigan, so I absolutely LOVE your home state and bet I miss it almost as much as you do. I also went to FSU, and was glad that when Mark Richt had to leave that he went to coach the DAWGS! Couldn’t have stood it if he went to FLORIDA!!! Booo HISSSS! LOL
I think, right about now, that I juuuuust might BE your long-waited for “sister” ~grins~ Thanks Melissa for your wonderful comment to me. Now I am gonna need a tissue for my missing-GA-tears. If you are ever headed toward northeast PA, let Christy know or get me on SP’s fb…I will meet ya somewhere. buh bye now.
Hey Melissa!
Don’t worry, you haven’t missed it! I saved some really special recipes for the cookbook. The main thing I’ve tried to do is figure out what folks would expect from the cookbook and deliver. I knew y’all would want some special recipes that aren’t on Southern Plate as well as original stories and such. But I’ve also included some of the more popular recipes from the website and went back and put in a few stories I’d already published here that y’all said could bear repeating (thank goodness for the feedback on the Southern Plate Family Facebook Page!).
I just found out that I will likely have a preliminary copy of the cookbook as early as MAY!!! It should go on presale this summer, I’ll keep y’all posted!
Gratefully,
Christy
Oh, I can hardly WAIT! I actually will be in Alabama in May as my dear niece is graduating from High School. I know I’m echoing the sentiments of a whole lotta readers that this book just can’t GET here soon enough.
Refried beans with lard also makes a great thickener. My ‘food expert’ husband does not like crock pot beans (dried or canned) because they do not have that ‘gravy’ that soaked and stove top cooked beans usually do. Since I have been adding the refried beans, he no longer fusses.
I love how they make big fancy names for just plain old beans & ham! HAHA! My sister told me margarine is just one molecule off from being plastic…I don’t know where she heard THAT one, but I guess I will probably be a walking talking Barbie Doll one day..LOL I do buy butter on special occasions, but don’t splurge too often because I have 4 kids, and the extra dollar or two can buy a box of cereal when its on sale..(gotta count your pennies ya know?) Don’t splurge on name brand TP either, because it ALL gets the job done, also my kids like to throw it in the bath tub and soak it, just to get on my last nerve! HA!
I totally LOVE your site! You speak my kind of language! Country Girls are the BEST!!
Christy, you had me literally doing a LMAO while I read this!!! I don’t even know where to begin so I’ll just say it was a MOST enjoyable post!!! I loved all your little tangents. And (see, I’m learning because I started a sentence with “and”) you even made me sortof feel like I was inside your head somehow with the little tidbits like when you blinked trying to figure out where you were going with the story. hehehe
I’ve never actually had this though I have seen it on several menus. Now that I know how to make it I just may give it a shot! With butter of course because I’m a butter snob. It may cost more but the taste (and lack of nasty man-made heart poisons) more than makes up for its price.
Michael
Hi – One time I found pork boullion cubes. I bought and used them in my beans. Now I look in every grocery I’m in to try to find them again, but never have. I, too, am put off by the high cost of butter – but nothing beats it. I stock up when it’s on sale and freeze it. It does freeze well. Love this site and these family style recipes.
Yummy! Canned beans are a staple in my pantry.
Seriously Christy. Pinch those pennies elsewhere and start using REAL butter for pete’s sake!!! It’s natural ya know unlike margarine and much better for you and your family, AND you can catch it on sale and freeze it ya know.
Hey Christy,
I’m a DC native and still live in the area. Dang girl…the “public” can’t eat at the Senate restaurant at the Capitol. I suspect if you contact your senator, they’d probably make an exception for you. 🙂
Used to be that you could tour the Capitol at your own pace. Now there is a Capitol Visitor Center (built underground) and you have to arrange in advance to have the tour (and you will be “screened” before you go).
Let me know if you plan to visit DC. I’d love to show you around.
P.S. One of my Mama’s favorite things in this world (next to chicken and dumplins and nana puddin’) is bean soup and corn bread…she’s from Andalusia, AL.
A food stylist! I now know what I wanna do for the rest of my life. *puts a tiny dress on a potato and rolls it across the carpet while yelling “Work iiit! Work iiit!”
Dad will love the beans for sure. Will have to make cornbread though. I’ll get a beating if I don’t.
Love ya Kiddo!
Bill…I can’t get that potato “model” out of my mind! You are sooo funny!
LOL!!!
Hey there,
I am a lifelong southern girl, first half in Alabama (Roll Tide Roll) and the second half in South Carolina (GO Gamecocks!!), I’m not sure where I should spend the last part of my life, but I am certain that the good Lord will see that it is in the South!!
I just wanted to share with you that I was happy to see you using Bush’s beans in your recipe for Senate bean soup. I am sure that you used them because you always have an eye to price. But I was happy for another reason, that is they are truly a Southern bean. I work in engineering and went to the bean “plant” one time for a job. It is nestled in the valley between some small rolling hills in Tennessee and is very much a family business. The home (small mill house) where momma Bush first started canning her vegtables is still there. She actually started canning on the back porch!! How southern is that!! The bean plant with all of it’s buildings and such grew up around the home. There is a small cafeteria that makes home style food and sometimes you see the Bush bean son that does the t.v. commercials. No dog though.
I’m sure that momma Bush would be proud that you used the family bean in your soup, and that you have grown a business around your family just like she did.
Love you girl! I’ll blow a kiss your way the next time I cruise into B’ham, momma an’ ’em still live there, near Hoover and the Galleria.
Jan, you should spend it in upstate SC and pull for Clemson. I’m foriginally from Anderson, SC
Lawd da mercy that looks good!!!!! With some unsweet cornbread…yes mam!!!!
Had to laugh at that one, DJ!
You would not BELIEVE what they do to cornbread in Michigan. It’s downright criminal – or corncakinal.
Ok, I guess I need to know what a “Prop” stylist does now…lol… I would have loved to have seen your family’s eyes when Miss Poppins started to unload her favors. Did you happen to ask her how long it took her to make all that stuff?… This is a wonderful soup, and I will have it soon as my DH comes home.. its a southern comfort food for me. I didnt know about the potatoes, but from now on, Im keeping some on hand. BTW, did I ever tell you that “BUTTER” is what my husband hauls?…. hehehehe. And we have about 300 lbs of the stuff in 2 extra fridges on our back porch!!!… We give it to the local food banks sometimes when he gets it… and I still have that much.. Oh well. I digress..
Okay, I’m not usually one to leave comments, but I just have to tell you that you are just positively precious! I grew up in the “UCLA” of Florida (Upper Corner of Lower Alabama), yes it’s in Florida but just minutes from the Alabama border. My husband is a youth pastor, and God plopped us in the middle of central Florida. On a map, it’s the south (lowercase s), but it is NOT the South. It’s so refreshing to get a bit of “home” in my inbox every week. God bless you & your sweet family!
I literally grew up on beans of all kinds. They were a daily item on our family table because they were cheap, filling, and a good source of protein. I use the ham base if I don’t have any ham. I always freeze my ham bone when I reach the end of the good cutting off meat. I would crumble my cornbread right into the soup bowl and pour the soup over it. I like it almost like a porridge with a nice lump of butter and I top it with diced raw onion. A teaspoon or less of horseradish is good too. I buy butter and margarine and try to be discreet about which one I use and where. It has to be butter worthy. I did find butter on sale for 88 cents a pound as a loss leader during the holiday season. I bought ten packages as it freezes well. Just give it an overwrap to stop it from absorbing any odors.