Vegetable Soup with Bacon

This winter has been one of the coldest temperatures the country has ever seen. Here is Hawaii, we have seen bitter winds and cold as well as temperatures sinking to near 60 degrees over night in our neighborhood. You may laugh, but for Hawaii, that is FREEZING!

As I watch my family and fellow friends from Pennsylvania freeze as well as my ohana here in Hawaii, I decided that we needed a good hearty dish to help keep us all warm across the nation. I was inspired to make this soup from a recipe in Southern Living and decided to put a more French/Bryon style to it.

The recipe originally uses a slow cooker, but me being me I felt a slow cooker would not do for me. So I used a large pot, working in layers to create deep flavors. Marshall loved it, as per usual, but if you want to do the recipe in a crock pot, you are more than welcome to do so.

https://www.southernliving.com/recipes/slow-cooker-vegetable-soup

To begin, I sautéed a whole package of bacon to get the fat rendered and the bacon very crispy. I then removed it and proceeded to cook my carrots, onions and celery (Mirepoix). I did use less celery because Marshall is not a big fan of cooked celery.

After cooking the mirepoix, I deglazed the pot with half a cup of white wine (Chardonnay). Deglazing gets all the tasty bits off the bottom of the pot and also adds a nice flavor to everything. The key to deglazing with a wine is to cook the wine until you can no longer smell alcohol. The wine will reduce to less than half of its original volume.

The price for parsnips in Hawaii is very high, so I decided to use double the red potatoes in this recipe instead of parsnips. I added the potatoes and cooked them for about 3 minutes. Once the potatoes where soft, I added the drained beans, the cooked bacon and homemade chicken stock and brought the entire pot to a simmer over low heat.

I did simmered the whole dish for about 3 hours. It added a great warmth to the house and made everything smell great! When I was ready to serve, I added the kale and a few drops of lemon about 5 minutes before serving as well as some croutons for a nice crunch! (You can also add a small bit of Parmesan cheese for a nice salty flavor if you want.)

This soup will warm your heart and your home while using many leftovers or unused items in your fridge or pantry. If you want to use it for lunches through-out the week, put the croutons in a separate baggy so they don’t get soggy.

Also, incase you didn’t know the best part about this soup is, I will shout it out for you…

BACON!!!!

Be Brave, Mrs. Wilson would be proud of you all!