Amish Yankee Bean Soup is a recipe that came to me from an Amish settlement in upstate New York and, wow, this is a heck of a delicious, hearty Amish soup recipe to try on a cold winter's night.
Doesn't this soup look amazing? The molasses balances out the savory for an excellent meal. A thick piece of crusty bread goes good with this soup.
❓ FAQ Bean Soup Question
Our Amish cook answers the question pretty well, but expanding on her answer. You don't have to, but you'll have a tougher, chewier bean. The longer you soak the beans, the softer bean you'll get and it will release the flavor more readily, so you can better sample the inherent taste. If you are in a real time crunch, soaking them even an hour will help a lot. Overnight is best. But soaking up to 24 hours is fine, after that the flavor returns diminish and you can begin diluting the flavor.
This recipe was sent to us by Anna Miller in Rensselaer Falls, New York, a small Amish settlement in the far, far north part of New York near where Quebec and the Empire State meet. Hopefully someday I will make it there. Anna took the time for us to write out this recipe in her own hand, so you just get the idea that this recipe has been passed down and perfect. So if you want a hearty, delicious bean soup to help you battle a cold winter's night, this is probably perfect.
By the way, the term Yankee is sometimes used by the Amish to refer to non-Amish. English is the most common term Amish use for non-Amish, but in some settlements - like Geauga County, Ohio - Yankee hangs on. Not sure why. Anyway, enjoy this bean soup!
Making The Amish Yankee Bean Soup
Molasses and bacon add some great flavor to this soup. And I'm loathe to tinker with Anna's perfected recipe but I know everyone has different tastes. So you can feel free to swap out the bacon with ham, ham hock, or a ham bone. Sprinkle in some black pepper. A little garlic, garlic salt, or a bay leaf goes a long way in a soup like this. A couple tablespoons Worcestershire sauce can add a nice splash of flavor also. The recipe doesn't call for any potatoes, but you could dice some up into it.
Cool this is in a large soup pot or large soup kettle. Other variations you can try are adding some chicken stock, fresh parsley, thyme, or fresh navy beans or great northern beans instead of dried.
This soup is so good with a hunk of homemade cornbread. Leftover portions can be refrigerator or frozen and warmed back up in the microwave.
🥣 Amish Yankee Bean Soup Ingredients
- 1¼ cup dried navy beans
- 5 cups water
- 1 teaspoon molasses
- ½ cup salt pork, cut into ¼ inch cubes
- ⅓ cup finely chopped celery leaves
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 3 slices of bacon, cut into ¼-½ inch pieces
- ¼ cup chopped onion
- ½ cup cooked carrots, diced
- 2 cups milk
- Salt to taste
📋 Instructions
- Rinse the beans well and remove any foreign debris.
- Place the beans in 4 or 5 quart saucepan or Dutch oven.
- Add the water and bring it to a boil.
- Remove the pot from heat and let it stand covered for 2 to 24 hours.
- (The longer the beans soak, the softer the finished beans and the thicker the broth.)
- Add the molasses, salt pork, celery leaves, and ½ teaspoon salt.
- Cover the pot and simmer 2 hours or until the beans are tender.
- Shake the pan or stir occasionally to prevent sticking.
- Cook the bacon and onion in a small skillet until the bacon is lightly browned.
- Mash the beans slightly.
- Add the bacon, onion, carrots, and milk to the beans. Add more salt to taste. Cover and simmer the soup 10 minutes longer.
- The soup is then ready to serve or can be cooked longer to desired consistency.
🥣 More Amish Soup Recipes
🖨️ Full Recipe
Amish Yankee Bean Soup
Ingredients
- 1¼ cups dried navy beans
- 5 cups water
- 1 teaspoon molasses
- ½ cup salt pork, cut into ¼ inch cubes·
- ⅓ cup finely chopped celery leaves
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 3 slices of bacon, cut into ¼-½ inch pieces·
- ¼ cup chopped onion
- ½ cup cooked carrots, diced·
- 2 cups milk
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- Salt to taste
Instructions
- Rinse the beans well and remove any foreign debris.
- Place the beans in 4 or 5 quart saucepan or Dutch oven.
- Add the water and bring it to a boil.
- Remove the pot from heat and let it stand covered for 2 to 24 hours. The longer the beans soak, the softer the beans with be in the finished soup.
- Add the molasses, salt pork, celery leaves, and ½ teaspoonsalt.
- Cover the pot and simmer 2 hours or until the beans aretender.
- Shake the pan or stir occasionally to prevent sticking.
- Cook the bacon and onion in a small skillet until the bacon is lightly browned.
- Mash the beans slightly.
- Add the bacon, onion, carrots, and milk to the beans. Addmore salt to taste. Cover and simmer the soup 10 minutes longer.
- The soup is then ready to serve or can be cooked longer todesired consistency.
Barbara Thomas
Well, Kevin, I do not care for pretty much any kind of bean soup, however husband loves it. So I make plenty of his kinds of soups, put in containers in the freezer, and there you go, instant lunch or dinner for him if I am not around. Thanks so much for posting, he saw and wants!!!
Angie Yoder
This is a great soup for a cold, snowy day with some hot homemade cornbread. Thanks for posting! I know what I'm making for dinner tomorrow night. 🙂
Gina Goodwin
Hello, Kevin. I can't wait until "Amish Cooks Across America" is available! I think that it is a fantastic idea that a cookbook involve nationwide contributors, especially of the Amish faith. It will be interesting to see how some recipes may vary in different regions. I recently discovered a new business (opening around March in Boardman, Ohio. It is called "The Vallet Marketplace" and will be an indoor marketplace featuring 30 Amish vendors under one roof!!! Do you know of any others like this?
kentuckylady717
Great soup recipes, thanks Kevin, but the Chili recipe would not come up ???? Wonder if it happened to anyone else ? All the others did....Can you double check and see if there was a problem ?
Anne Mathias
Kevin, I owe ya one. I have never been able to make good fudge, but I tried your Amish No-Cook fudge recipe and couldn't believe it. It's delicious, so easy and creamy. We all love it, especially the grandkids.
Kevin
Thanks, Anne, you don't owe me a thing, you telling me that you enjoyed the recipe is good enough for me, glad it turned out well!:)
ValerieR
The chili soup recipes would not come up. Unfortunately this is an ongoing problem with this site. In fact, it was one of the reasons my local paper cited for discontinuing the column. I used to love this site and column, but now not so much. Please fix the problems with getting the correct links up. Oh , and how about an update on Lovina and her family?
Kevin
Valerie - that link is now fixed, four of the five links were fine, but the error on the fourth has been fixed. Your newspaper dropped the column because links on the site are occasionally wrong?
Thomas Condon
In my fifty years of searching for the perfect Navy Bean Soup, this Amish recipe is far and above the best! I made the soup yesterday and was so pleased, I was immediately sorry not to have made a double batch!
Small suggestion: the salt pork IMO should be chopped to LESS than 1/4” cubes (to avoid globs of pork fat on your tongue). Smaller pieces of pork in the soup will render more readily, leaving lovely bits of smoky pork.
Kevin
Glad you liked this recipe. Your suggestions make sense. This recipe was sent to me by an elderly Amish lady in Upstate New York, she took the time to write it out in shaky hand, it definitely has a lot of authenticity to it...
Grace Pulley
Years ago when I was cook for the Proud Cut Steak House Saloon in Cody , WY every Monday the soup of the day was Navy Bean Soup with a side of corn bread. It was one of our best selling soups. The recipe was very similar to this one except for the milk and we added a little ham flavored soup base. I'll have to try this recipe and see how it measures up.
Kevin
Always good to hear from you, Grace, and I have to say working (or eating) at the Proud Cut Steak House Saloon in Cody , WY sounds about as western as one can get. Throw in a side of corn bread and soup and, wow, sounds amazing!