Lucky Legba

Okay, so I must have done an okay job of skimming the fat off the stock because when the strained stuff has chilled, there's no fat to skim.

I know, the sausage will put a considerably dose back in, but still, it's a lighter soup than it would have been.



The seven pounds of beans, though, that was a mistake. They swell up while they soak, and there wasn't any room left in the pot once they were done doing that. So after I rinsed them all again, I scooped about three quarts of beans out of the pot and proceeded to make soup.



I almost made a second soup in my smaller stock pot to not waste the beans. Then I realized I'd end up spending $10 on Gladware to save the leftovers, and I'd end up buying a bunch more soup makin's and this to save $1 worth of beans? Then I talked to my Mom and she said she'd take the excess beans and make her own batch.

I supplemented the two quarts or so of stock with six more quarts of chicken broth and added two carrots, shredded, and a bunch of celery and a medium onion, both minced. I have one of those Pampered Chef choppers left over from my marriage, and it works pretty well on this kind of thing. Sauteed the stuff in olive oil and added it to the boil.




Oh, and I added a couple tablespoons of chopped garlic, too.

I debated about tomatoes. Maybe a can of crushed tomatoes? To give the soup some acidity?

In the end, I didn't. We'll see, if it seems to 'need something,' I can still add it in.




Then came the Andouille sausage. Four pounds of it this time.

I've omitted all pepper at this point, as Em has promised to give this soup an honest try. I'll hold her to it, too, because no chipotle in this soup is weird, and no black pepper either?

She did try a bite of the sausage while I was doing the prep work and seemed to like it...