Soup! It’s delicious and helps to fill that void that this inadequate life and government that hates you leaves in your soul. But gosh, it really is so much work to get something cheap, filling, and healthy, for whatever that word means. Now I am just a home cook and amateur restaurant reviewer. But I’m a pretty damn good home cook, and I know fairly well what I’m talking about.

With a little more further ado, I give you what I believe to be the best in terms of making your money’s worth of food. My 15 bean soup recipe is an amalgamation of three other recipes and my own special twist. Some of the ingredients will not be used up, and the rest are not too difficult to find or too far out of a college student’s budget. I find that this whole recipe costs around $60 to make, and makes dinner for an entire week; just make sure you have enough tupperware. It is a hearty soup, full of protein, and fills you right up in the perfect way. I give you…

Alistair’s Ham & Bean Soup

Makes six to 10 servings, depending on serving size.
– 25 oz of dried 15 bean soup
– Vegetable oil
– one cup onion, chopped
– one 14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes
– one tsp chili powder
– Juice of one lemon
– one to two cloves of garlic, minced
– one lb ham and smoked sausage, or similar meat
– one 32 oz carton of beef broth (pork is better but it is hard to find)
– ~one tbsp msg (optional)
– ~one tsp cumin
– three tbsp barbecue sauce, and more to taste
– Crusty bread

1. First soak the beans. Wash them off in a colander to get rid of any remaining dirt, then put the beans in the instant pot with eight cups of water and cook on high pressure for 35 minutes with a 10 minute natural release. This will work to soak the beans.

2. While that is going, toss the onion in a pan with the vegetable oil on medium heat once the pan is hot, then sauté until soft and translucent, about three minutes.

3. Add the garlic and sauté for another minute.

4. Once the beans are done, drain the water and add the onion and garlic, the ham and sausage, msg, cumin, chili powder, seasoning packet (from the beans), barbeque sauce, beef broth, and two to four cups of water, depending on how thick you want the soup to be. Cover the Instant Pot and lock the lid. Make sure the valve is set to “sealing”, press the manual pressure cook button, and set the timer to 20 minutes.

5. Let the pot naturally release for 20 minutes, then use the valve to vent the rest of the pressure. Remove the lid.

6. Add the tomatoes and lemon juice, then put the lid back on and pressure cook for three minutes.

7. Ladle soup into bowls, add salt pepper and olive oil to taste, and serve with crusty bread.

Make it and just try to tell me it isn’t the most delicious thing you have ever tasted. Unfortunately it is not vegetarian at base, but that can be easily remedied by replacing the ham and sausage with plant based alternatives, and using vegetable stock instead of beef or pork. I hope you all find this as wonderful as I have, as it is truly The Best.