Easy Bean Stew

For me, winter is a time for soups. Lately, its what I mainly seem to be making. To make myself feel better after my terrible experiment with leek and potato soup tonight, I've decided to post a delicious one that I threw together last week.

I found a bag of 15 bean soup at this small grocery store down the street (The Market Place). It's made by Hurst and is really nice because you get the nutritional variety of all those types of beans in one place. It kind of comes out as a stew though, because the ingredients soak up almost all of the broth.

The annoying thing about beans, however, is that you have to soak them for a long time. You have to plan ahead a little since you have to soak them so long. You can either set them up overnight or while you're at work. These take at least 8 hours. I just set them in a pan of water and left for work. You don't need to boil them, just make sure that you leave them in enough water (more than covered).

Once the beans are done, drain and rinse them.
Get out a big stock soup pan and put in 2 containers of 32oz vegetable broth. You can use any kind, as long as its about that much liquid.

To enhance the flavor of this broth ( I use pacific vegetable broth), I usually add a few things. This may be optional if you are using a different broth.
3-4cloves crushed garlic or 2 tsp garlic powder
2tsp ginger (or to taste) powdered is better because then you won't have chunks, but fresh and chopped tastes better, so pick your battle.

Once the broth is boiling, add the following
The whole bag of soaked beans
3/4-1cup rice or barley
1 cup corn

Let this mix cook for about half an hour, then it will be ready. If you're eating this by yourself, I think it can be frozen quite easily. Between my boyfriend and myself, we always eat it before it gets to that point.