After noticing many half used amounts of dried beans, lentils, barley - etc. in my pantry I decided to make a multiple bean soup to continue my journey to be a frugal person. :-) I took about 1 cup of red beans, 1 cup of maya coba beans, and 1/2 cup of some small white bean, probably a navy bean - I use Mason jars to store dried food items, nuts, couscous - stuff like that so sometimes I don't label it and... anyway, back to the soup. I soaked them overnight. The next morning I rinsed them and put them in a cast iron dutch oven - by the way - using cast iron to cook dried beans makes a big difference in how they turn out, for the good! Same for collards and turnips. My mother in law told me that when I was just a wisp of a woman back in the day and although I tried to not believe her in solidarity to my Northern roots, I eventually gave in and she was correct. Again, back to the soup. After rinsing the beans I put them in the pot and used two soup can size chicken broth - NO MSG - and the rest of a box of portobello mushroom soup I had in refrigerator. (I wouldn't do that again because it makes a weird foam at the top at first). I added about 1/3 cup red lentils. Red lentils cook completely apart very easily so I threw them in for taste and as a thickener. I put in, from the garden, cilantro and parsley. I put in a jalapeno pepper and one large onion diced. I added the rest of a still good to use but somewhat limp bunch of celery with leaves cut with kitchen shears in a very random fashion over the pot. Coarse ground pepper. I don't think anything else for first phase but don't hold me to it. After it came to a boil I turned it down to the lowest setting I have and let it cook all day. At about 3 PM - (great perk to have office bottom floor of home) I added skinless polish kielbasa and let it cook another hour or so. Very very good if I do say so myself. The end..
