And now, finally we come to the reasons I made Ranch Jalapeños and Welsh Rarebit earlier in the week…
Bean and Bacon Soup with creamy cheese and zippy jalapeños to make it like a big ole bowl of jalapeño poppers. But better.
Why better? Well, yeh, there is bacon and all that cheese, but there’s also beans, and I added my secret ingredient to up the nutritional ante on most anything; shredded coleslaw mix.
“But wait!” you say.
“I don’t care for cabbage!” you say.
Trust me, you, and most anyone else you serve this to, will not even know it is in there, so go get your veggies on.
INGREDIENTS
Bacon:
•1 lb bacon
•Steak seasoning – your choice
•Maple syrup
Soup:
•1 lb maple roasted bacon
•Welsh Rarebit
•1 cup diced carrot
•1 cup diced celery
•2 cups coleslaw mix
•5 cloves garlic, minced
•3 cups diced onion
•1/2 tsp Seasoned Salt
•1/2 tsp black pepper
•1/2 tsp Aleppo pepper
•6 cups chicken stock
•2 cans white beans, drained and rinsed
•2 tbsp Sherry Peppers Sauce*
•1 tsp dried Thai basil
•1 bay leaf
•1/4 cup Ranch Jalapeño Slices
*No Sherry Peppers Sauce? No Problem! Simply add a bit of decent sherry (none of that “cooking” stuff) and a dash or three of your fave hot sauce, to taste.
First, for the bacon, heat your oven to 400º and line a large baking pan with foil. If you have one, insert a rack into the baking pan and apply cooking spray.
Arrange the bacon in a single layer on the rack and season as you like.
Pop into the hot oven and bake for 15 minutes, just until the bacon is beginning to brown.
Carefully remove the pan from the oven, there will be fat in the bottom, then turn the bacon over and brush with the maple syrup.
Back into the oven for another ten minutes or so, until the bacon is nicely crisped.
Remove from the oven and drain the bacon on paper towels.
Strain the bacon fat through a fine mesh sieve, then add two tablespoons to a large Dutch oven over medium high heat.
Add the celery, carrot, onion, and coleslaw mix, toss to coat evenly with the bacon fat, and cook, stirring often for ten minutes, until the the veggies are tender and all that cabbage nicely wilted.
Add the garlic and cook for another 30 seconds or so, just until you can smell it.
Add the stock, the beans, the crumbled bacon, and the seasonings and stir.
Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for an hour, stirring often.
Reduce the heat and stir in all of the Welsh Rarebit and the 1/4 cup Ranch Jalapeños.
Note: Because some of the folx I was making this soup for do not have the tolerance for zippy that we do, I served the jalapeños in a bowl on the side so they could as much or as little as they liked.
Add a good sprinkle of chopped fresh parsley and serve.
We had ours with corn bread.