With Soup Season upon us (to the delight of my kids), I thought it was time to share some of our favorite soup recipes! Magic Bean Soup is a frequently requested soup in our house. When we have Sunday Supper Soup Socials during Advent (we just make a massive pot of soup every Sunday night through Advent and open our home to anyone and everyone who wants to stop by for dinner), this soup is always requested.

This soup serves 20-24 people. You may want to divide the recipe for a more manageable amount of soup if you’re not feeding a crowd. (I’m always feeding a crowd.) I also make this in the InstaPot because it is by far the easiest way to make anything involving dried beans, but you could adapt it for a regular stock pot on the stove– you’ll just need to cook it for 5-6 hours instead of 40 minutes. You also need at least an 8 quart electric pressure cooker (InstaPot) for this recipe.

Ingredients

• 1/2 stick butter
• 1 onion chopped
• 1/4 cup dried celery (optional)
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 2 quarts dried mixed soup beans
• 5-6 quarts chicken stock
• 1 T salt
• 1 T black pepper

Making Some Magic (Bean Soup)

Turn the InstaPot on brown and toss in the butter, chopped onions, celery, and can of diced tomatoes. Let the butter melt and stir the veggies a bit while it does. Don’t bother to cook the onions down completely.

Add the chicken stock, beans, salt, and pepper. Stir. Turn the InstaPot on for 40 minutes.

When it is done, we serve it with homemade peasant bread. (A recipe for another day.)

Now the Talking

I always hate it when the recipe is all the way at the bottom of a blog post, so to avoid that, I put mine toward the top. Now we can talk about all the particulars with the recipe out of the way.

This is a cook from the heart kind of recipe. If you don’t have dried celery, you can use fresh (the flavor is different, though) or you can skip celery. If you don’t like tomatoes, don’t add them. (They are very minimal in this soup, so you may not even mind them.) I usually use a yellow onion, but if you only have white or red, use what you’ve got. I have added carrots before, as well, though I don’t usually add carrots. If you don’t have butter, use some olive oil and move on. It really isn’t an exact science here. It is soup. Soup is forgiving.

Discussion of Ingredients

I use the 13 bean mix from Azure. Buying the 25 pound bags ensure we have beans so we can have Magic Bean Soup at any time. I do not buy the seasoning mix because I find my way works the way we like it. You can buy mixed beans from the grocery store (you’ll need 2-3 of the normal sized bags). You can also just toss in whatever dried beans you happen to have.

That said, the red lentils and split peas in the 13 bean mix will pretty much disappear in the soup– but they act as a thickening agent. Without them, the soup is going to be less substantial feeling. So, I do think having at least one of those is an important factor. Also, my kids absolutely love having some giant beans in the soup. So, I think the large lima beans or lava beans are necessary to a good Magic Bean Soup. They are part of the magic. I think the dried mixed beans are easiest, but it isn’t the only way.

Bean choice can also affect the cook time. I find 40 minutes in the InstaPot gets all the beans cooked, but not obliterated (except for the red lentils and split peas as we discussed). However, if you’re using smaller beans all around, you could decrease your cook time. If you’re adding a lot of larger beans or you don’t have those lentils and split peas that are going to thicken the soup, you can add more time.

I say 5-6 quarts of chicken stock because technically 6 quarts might fit, but you’ll likely have to short it a little to not go over the “max fill” line on your electric pressure cooker (InstaPot). I add to the max fill line, which will be over 5 quarts but a little under 6. If you have a pressure cooker larger than 8 quarts, this isn’t going to be an issue– add 6 quarts of stock.

Serving Magic Bean Soup

I also love serving this soup with fresh, homemade bread. You don’t have to serve it that way. It can be served alone. You could just buy a loaf of Italian bread or a baguette to serve with it. It is entirely up to you.

I don’t garnish the soup, either. I don’t find this to be a fancy soup and don’t bother with garnish. If I were going to garnish it, chopped parsley would be my choice of garnish.

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Magic Bean Soup

A delicious mixed bean soup recipe that the whole family will love!

Course Soup

Cuisine American

Keyword beans, soup, vegetarian

Prep Time 5 minutes minutes

Cook Time 40 minutes minutes

Waiting for the InstaPot to Com Up to Pressure 10 minutes minutes

Total Time 55 minutes minutes

Servings 20 people

Calories 297kcal

Cost $10

Equipment

• 1 Electric Pressure Cooker at least 8 quart size

Ingredients

• 1/2 stick butter
• 1 onion chopped
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 1/4 cup dried celery
• 2 quarts mixed dried beans
• 6 quarts chicken stock
• 1 tbsp salt
• 1 tbsp black pepper

Instructions

• Melt butter in InstaPot on "brown" setting with chopped onion, dried celery, and can of diced tomatoes.
• Add dried beans, chicken stock, salt, and pepper. Do not go over max line on your InstaPot!
• Set InstaPot to 40 minutes and cook.
• Serve with warm bread.

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Of course, when they are firm and pretty, you eat them like an apple. You just slice them and eat them plain. No joke, the kids and I saw a video not long ago and this grown man said he’d never eaten a peach in his life! Like– what? And how?

When they get ripe toward over-ripe, you can’t just let them go bad! So, you can jar them (I make spiced peach jam every year at the request of one of my sons), jelly them, or bake them. Here is my (fairly famous) brown sugar peach cobbler using fresh peaches instead of the traditional canned version. 

Ingredients for Peach Cobbler:

• 1 stick of butter
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1 t baking powder
• 0.5 t salt
• 1 cup milk
• 3 T brown sugar
• 1 t vanilla extract (or Fiori di Sicilia)(or bourbon)
• 3 ripe peaches (You can really cook them anywhere from off the tree to overly ripe. It’ll come out fine either way.)

A Note About Vanilla

Vanilla extract is one of the most over-hyped things in the world. You can make your own by soaking vanilla beans in any type of alcohol (personally, bourbon or rum makes the best vanilla extract). You can also just use bourbon or rum sans vanilla. It is cheaper, easier, and available in vast quantities. Once you commit to ditching that tiny vanilla extract bottle– you won’t go back. (And for those who don’t “cook with alcohol”– what exactly do you think an extract is?)

Prepping the Peach Cobbler

You’ll need an 9 x 9 (or 8″) baking dish. Place the whole stick of butter in your dish and put in the oven at 350. While you are whipping everything up, the butter will be melting in the oven. Don’t just melt the butter! The dish needs to be hot. The butter needs to be melted. Two birds– one stone.

Cut up your peaches. Remove the pits. I leave the skin on, but you can remove it if you’re feeling fussy. In a bowl, mix 3 T brown sugar with the peaches. Add 1 t of vanilla extract. Set this bowl to the side.

Now, grab another bowl. Add 1 cup of flour, 1 cup of granulated sugar, 1 t baking powder, and half a t of salt and whisk that up. Add 1 cup of milk and whisk it up, too. Your batter will be on the thin side. If it seems thick, add a bit more milk.

Do Not Mix a Peach Cobbler!

By now, your butter is all nice and melted. Carefully remove it from the oven. Now, you’ll need to carefully add to the butter because it’ll burn like a devil if you happen to splash. Add the batter to the center of the butter first. Don’t mix it. (See the picture above.) Just pour the batter into the center of the melted butter. Resist the urge to mix!

Pour the peaches into the very center of the batter. Do not mix it up. Resist the urge! The batter will bake up around the peaches and the butter will brown up on the outside all nice and pretty. You mix it, you’ll mess it all up. Please don’t mix.

Baking a Peach Cobbler

On the the baking! Finally, we will bake the peach cobbler at 350 (Fahrenheit- I’m American) for what seems like far too long (about 45 minutes) until it is pretty and golden on the top and doesn’t slosh around when you move it. Believe me, everyone in your house will be begging you to just let them at it, make them all wait. You may have to stand guard at the oven door.

Once it is pretty and brown (or you can fend the hoards off no longer), remove it from the oven. Let it cool! You don’t have to let it cool ALL the way down, you just don’t want to be eating molten lava peach cobbler. You won’t be able to appreciate it with your mouth burned to heck and back.

Serve the Peach Cobbler

To serve, serve warm. You can add a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream if you’re feeling super fancy or just happen to like your cobbler a’ la mode. If you prefer, you can add homemade whipped cream. Most people do expect vanilla ice cream with their peach cobbler.

I’d say this serves 6, but more realistically, it serves 4. If 4 of the 6 are kids, yes, it serves 6. Typically, expect to only feed four adults. (Unless they are the bougie type who aren’t going to gorge themselves on peach cobbler in the presence of others.)

Don’t double the recipe. If you need more, you’ll need to bake 2. When doubled, it just doesn’t come out so nice and pretty if you try to put it in a bigger pan. I’ve tried. Once, I baked 6 cobblers in one night because you really can’t double the recipe and do it justice. The peaches don’t spread as evenly when you double and the middle stays a little more runny.

Adapting to Canned Peaches

Now, if you aren’t in peach country and have tons of fresh peaches around for you to use, you can use canned peaches. I grew up on canned peach cobbler. I make canned peach cobbler in the off season. It isn’t quite as good, but still more delicious than anything your mother-in-law ever cooked. Instead of mixing the peaches and brown sugar and vanilla, you just make sure you buy a can of peaches in heavy syrup and pour the whole can into the center of the cobbler.

You can also use other fruit. Blackberries make a lovely cobbler, too! Blueberries are great, as well. Blueberry lemon is super fancy and delicious. But the peaches are the traditional, for me, way to go.

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Brown Sugar Peach Cobbler

A southern peach cobbler recipe for using those ripe peaches in the summer.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Keyword cobbler, peach, peach cobbler, southern

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 45 minutes minutes

Total Time 55 minutes minutes

Servings 6 people

Cost $10

Equipment

• 1 Oven
• 1 Baking Dish 9 x 9

Ingredients

• 1 stick butter
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup milk
• 3 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract or rum or bourbon
• 3 peaches

Instructions

• Heat oven to 350 degrees.
• Place stick of butter in baking dish and place in over to melt.
• Meanwhile, cut peaches and remove pits. Mix with brown sugar and vanilla.
• Mix flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, and milk.
• Remove baking dish and pour batter into baking dish. Do not stir into the butter!
• Pour peaches and brown sugar mixture into the middle of the batter. Do not stir!
• Bake for about 45 minutes until golden brown.
• Serve with ice cream if you want people to love you.

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• Square Glass Dish
• Round Glass Dish
• Whisk
• Mixing Bowl (I love these no skid bottom mixing bowls because they don’t try to run away as you whisk.)
• Apron (So you can look like a total pro, even though this recipe is super simple.)

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