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Friendship Soup



Years ago,  ladies that attended my bible study group brought me little thank you gifts.  I loved them all but there was one gift that was 'unusual' since this was before the time that these kind of 'home gifts' were recognized for their simple joy and worth!
I smiled and thanked the lady who gave it to me, little realizing how much I would enjoy her gift and years later still be enjoying it !
The gift was a tall narrow glass  jar filled with layers of dried beans. Attached to the jar was a rolled up piece of red  construction paper on which was a hand written soup recipe entitled 'Friendship Soup'.
I kept the jar for a long time and then one day decided to make the soup.  It was DELICIOUS and stayed a family favorite.
With Christmas coming  -- I thought what a neat idea this would be to tuck into a gift basket or just to bring as a hostess gift.
I had trouble finding the 'right' glass jar, I wanted a tall, narrow one  -- the one pictured  exactly doubles the recipe. (so if you are going to use a jar that doubles the recipe make sure you make a note of that somewhere on the enclosed recipe)

The hand written recipe reads  as follows....

Friendship Soup 
(in this jar are a combination of  7 kinds of dried beans -- 1/4 cup each)

  • 1/4 cup  kidney beans
  • 1/4 cup   green split peas 
  • 1/4 cup  yellow split peas 
  • 1/4 cup pinto beans 
  • 1/4 cup  small white beans 
  • 1/4 cup  lima beans 
  • 1/4 cup soya beans
  1. WASH -  the beans thoroughly.  Place in a pot , cover with  water and 2 tbsp. salt and soak overnight. 
  2. DRAIN - Add two quarts water and 1/2 ham or ham bones (or bouillion cubes) Bring to a boil, Stir occasionally -- simmer 2 or 2 1/2 hours.  
  3. ADD -   
  • one large onion chopped 
  • juice of one lemon
  • salt and pepper 
  • 1 large can of tomatoes (29 oz) 
  • 1 pod red pepper (or 1 tsp. chilli powder)
    4. SIMMER - another 30 minutes. This makes a large pot of soup. It is even better aged in the fridge. 
    5. ENJOY WITH FRIENDS


16 comments:

  1. thanks for sharing this recipe, it looks like a perfect gift!

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  2. I love gifts like this. My girls did cookie mix recipes for my brother when he was still single and he LOVED them. He still asks for them at Christmas.

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  3. What a neat idea, I love these kind of gifts!

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  4. What a great idea! I love these kinds of gifts and I will enjoy sharing this one with others.

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  5. I enjoy these homemade gifts...thanks!

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  6. My sister gave me a similar recipe, only it used a bag of 15 bean soup (you toss out the seasoning packet). I never stopped to measure out the bean quantity in the bag (never thought to do it until now). So now I don't have to buy the bags of soup mix, I can just use this recipe and mix and match beans to my heart's content instead!

    Thanks for sharing.

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  7. Thank you so much for sharing. I will be taking some of these to my December womens meeting at church to give out for gifts. Such a simple idea.

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  8. This is a brilliant idea! Thanks for sharing.

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  9. Hi Anneliese,
    I plan on making this for our 13 church staff but I would also like to give something like this to some of my vegetarian friends. Would you be able to make some recommendations to adding some herbs and what the amounts would be to make a soup just as flavorful without the addition of meats? I love this website and look forward to it every day since I have run across it. Love to read the Sunday devotional before heading out to church. God Bless.
    Roswitha

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  10. Hi Julie, Please see note above. I was admiring Anneliese's recipe today and accidentally typed her name instead of yours. My sincere apologies. Thank you for the gluten free ideas. I have a few friends with Celiac's so I try to make new things for them every once in a while. Some of those friends are vegetarian. With some adaptations to the add ins this would be a great gift for any of them. Please offer some suggestions that I could replace the meat with. Sincerely,
    Roswitha

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    Replies
    1. I'm thinking the soup would be quite flavorful without the meat. Are there bouillion cubes that don't have meat? Or maybe just add a few more spices ... like Thyme or what about Smoked Paprika -- I haven't tried it but would it add that bacon/smoked ham flavour?

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  11. What a wonderful idea! I love how unique and personal this is as a gift. I've just come across your site in recent weeks and really look forward to all your posts.

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  12. I am soo doing this for Christmas pressies this year! I have aunts that would LOVE it.

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  13. In your recipe you call for "Add[ing] two quarts water and 1/2 ham or ham bones (or bouillion cubes)". Please forgive me for asking something which should be obvious, but what is a half ham? No one here seems to know. Thank you for your help! This looks like a wonderful recipe.

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    1. It isn't the way we would say it today, is it ... This is a very old recipe and I think maybe the hams were some kind of standard size .... I would just use ham bones or a piece of ham as big as you like -- if you like lots of meat in your soup, use a bigger piece. You could also use a 1/2 ring of smoked sausage - like a Mennonite Farmer Sausage.

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  14. Thank you so much, Julie! I like your suggestion of smoked sausage too. Can't wait to try this recipe.

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