Meaty (yet Meatless) Mortgage Lifter Bean Soup

Ever since I first saw Mortgage Lifter Beans during my tour of the remodeled Boulder Whole Foods, I knew that they were in my future. Seriously – that is a hilarious name. It’s purported to come from a farmer facing foreclosure, who had a spectacular crop of beans, and thus had his mortgage lifted. I probably would have bought them regardless, just because of the name, but the cooking coach at Whole Foods said that they were a very meaty tasting bean, so I thought they would make a great soup.  As you can see, they’re also quite substantially proportioned:

Mortgage Lifter Beans

I love making vegetable and bean soups, and do so pretty often during the winter. I guess one of the nice things about soup is that in the middle of winter when the vegetables aren’t at their peak, you can still make a flavorful soup by cooking them for a long time in a flavorful broth. But since I was making this soup with fresh farmers’ market vegetables, I was interested to see if the taste would be significantly different.

I had picked up some purple carrots at the farmers’ market, and was excited to see if they were orange inside like the red ones I’d been buying, or were actually purple. (Excited? Maybe just moderately curious? I hate to give the impression I spent the days after my purchase unable to sleep in giddy anticipation of slicing up my carrots. Yeah, okay, I was excited). It turned out that they were reddish-purple with yellow and white stripes running the length of the carrots – pretty cool looking.

Purple Carrots with Yellow and White Stripes

The really awesome (and unanticipated) part of using these carrots was that while the soup was cooking, the deep reddish-purple color leached into the broth, giving it a gorgeous burgundy hue. I actually made this soup on the weekend to have during the week, and after soaking in the refrigerator for a few days, the beans themselves had turned a nice burgundy color as well. And they were huge! This soup had really basic ingredients, but was very flavorful, and fairly filling due to the hearty beans.

Mortgage Lifter Bean Soup Ingredients

Mortgage Lifter Bean Soup
serves 2-3

1 cup mortgage lifter beans
2 cups chicken broth
1 head of garlic, minced
1 small onion, chopped
3 stalks celery, chopped
4 carrots, chopped
2 cups tomatoes, chopped
2 tsp olive oil
1+1/2 tsp dill weed
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp hot smoked Spanish paprika
1/2 tsp freshly cracked pepper
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp white wine

Soak the beans overnight (be sure to cover them with about 2 inches of water, so they don’t soak up all the water mid-way). Once soaked, drain, and then combine in a large pot with the chicken broth, bring to a boil, and then reduce heat and simmer until the beans are fairly tender, about 1+1/2 hours. (Check them occasionally and add more water if needed). Drain and set aside.

In the same pot, coat the bottom with the olive oil, add the onion, garlic, celery and carrots, set the heat to medium, cover, and sweat for 5 minutes, stirring a few times. Add the tomatoes, cover and cook another 5 minutes, stirring a few times. Add all of the remaining ingredients, stir well, cover, and then simmer, stirring occasionally, for 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Mortgage Lifter Bean Soup at the end of cooking

Mortgage Lifter Bean Soup

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