Bland bean soup

[cjsmith]

Bean soup: onion, celery, a lot of great northern beans, parsley, *some* kind of meat for flavor.

If the meat used is salt pork, the soup turns out to have absolutely no flavor whatsoever. Seriously, this is the blandest thing I've tasted in a long time.

I'm sure some herbs and spices could save this. Beyond the obvious cracked black pepper, what would you add?

Comments

[tiger-spot.livejournal.com]

Were I making it over again, I'd add bay leaves, but they don't do much at the last minute. Also in this category: garlic, broth instead of water (though if you have bullion cubes, you might try tossing an appropriate number of those in and seeing if it helps). I generally put a huge heaping lot of cumin in bean soup, but that's with black beans. Not sure if it goes with northern beans. I also usually add diced carrots and bell peppers (sauted with the onion and celery) and maybe some tomato (added later). Lemon (just a little) or orange (more) juice is good in black bean soup, too.

The smelling things and tossing them in if they match approach sounds like a winner. I might try oregano or savory to start with.

[brooksmoses]

Pensey's sells powdered bay leaves, which are for the win.