Bean Sorting

I’ve avoided dried beans for years.  But, I love lentil soup.  Elegant, simple, exotic.  I get it at restaurants, but have been afraid to make it myself.  One reason:  sorting the beans.  Every single lentil recipe I’ve read has you sorting the beans.  What the hell does that mean?  Sort them into what?  Big ones and little ones?  Darker medium green ones and lighter medium green ones?  What?  Some recipes say, “pick over,” the beans.  What for?

I have no idea.  I asked Colleen, who knows a thing or two about ingredients.  “Pick out the weird, odd ones.”  She said. 

“Why?”  I said.

“Cause they taste funny when you leave them in?  I don’t know.”  She replied.

I looked it up on the internet and, surprisingly enough, there were really no answers.

So this summer, I set off to make lentil soup.  I was being clever and local, so I decided to substitute the kale in the recipe for fresh mustard greens grown here in Northeastern Ohio.  Mmmmm.  I “picked over” the beans.  Ultimately, I decided to pull out the brighter yellow flatter ones.  They almost looked like half beans.  It was painstaking.  There were a lot of beans to sort through.

I made the soup. 

The soup was…no good.  I mean, the beans were okay.  But the mustard greens?  The whole soup stunk like pungent weeds.  Big mistake; huge.

Three months later, on the first day of November, with a pantry full of dried lentils, I tried again.  I didn’t bother sorting the beans this time.  Screw it.  If I get funny tasting beans, so be it.

The results?  Fantastic.  Truly a good, servable to others, decent soup.

I used a Weight Watchers recipe and added some spices.  Here it is, for three points a serving.

2 carrots, peeled and cut into half moons

2 celery ribs, cut into crescents

1 medium onion, chopped

2 cups dried lentils, unsorted

3 dried bay leaves

3 fresh thyme sprigs (throw them in, then pick out the stems after the soup is cooked)

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1 tablesppon curry powder

1 teaspon smoked spanish paprika

2 boxes of chicken stock (8 cups)

5 slices Canadian bacon, chopped.

Dump everything into a crock pot on low.  Cook covered for 6 hours.  When you get home from work, dump in the chopped Canadian bacon.  Unload the dishwasher, feed the cats, open the mail, uncork a bottle of pinot noir.  Soup is done.