This soup can be made from whatever you have available in your kitchen,
within reason. It's a hearty soup and the sausage gives it a great flavor. I
have some vegetables in my freezer that could be thrown into the pot,
such as Swiss chard and a lentil dish that I froze. Everything else in the
mix will hide any dish you made that fell a bit short. Feel free to use
pinto beans, Great Northern beans, pea beans, split peas, lentils or any
other dry bean . To thicken the soup, you can use cornstarch, flour, a
grated potato - or even mashed poptatoes - rice, pasta or okra. You can
make a huge pot and freeze for another occasion or use at a dinner buffet.
The recipe that follows is roughly the way I made it for Christmas 2007.

French market soup xxxxxxxxxxx serves a lot
x
2 Tbsp. each various dried beans 1/2 tsp. dried rosemary
water 1 tsp. dried thyme
2 boneless chicken breasts 1 large onion. chopped
1/4 lb. smoked sausage 3 stalks celery, sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced 2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 large carrot, sliced 3 Tbsp. flour
1 tsp chicken bouillion 1 small potato, grated
1/2 tsp. dried sage freshly ground pepper
chopped fresh tarragon (optional)
x
Place dried beans into a large pot, cover with water and bring to a boil. Cook for 2 minutes and let sit for 1
hour. Bring back to a boil and cook for 30 minutes. To the cooked beans add more water and the chicken,
sausage, garlic, carrot, bouillion and spices. Bring to a boil, lower the heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Re-
move the chicken, let cool and chop. Saute the onion and celery in the oil until soft. Add the flour and con-
tinue stirring to make a roux. Add the chicken to the pot with the roux and simmer for 20 minutes. Add the
potato and simmer for 20 minutes more. Season with the pepper and serve.


I made this soup for dinner at my home on Christmas day and everyone loved it. I had
enough left over after the meal, so I added the dish of greens from my freezer - it turns
out that it was beet greens with some beets and walnuts. I still liked the embellished soup.