Don't understand all the whining about this recipe. It is quite good. BUT I did make some adjustments that probably ensured its success. Tomatoes and wine are acidic and will halt the cooking of legumes. Cook the beans for an hour or two; then let them rest in the refrigerator before turning them into the crockpot with the acids. Also because of the long cooking time don't chop the vegetables--chunk them. Make the pieces big enough to fit on a spoon. Dicing or chopping means they will disintegrate during long cooking time. Finally I wasn't happy with the consistency at finish. I wanted a thicker soup. So before adding the sausage I pureed about three cups of beans then returned the mixture to the soup for the hearty bean soup I was hoping for.
Instead of using packaged beans I used canned beans.Much faster and didn't have to worry about uncooked beans. It was delicious. My husband loves it too. I make it a lot.
I adapted this recipe for the stovetop and it couldn't be easier or faster or more delicious! I used canned beans and tomatoes frozen vegetables for the rest (except onion). And it took only about 1/2 hour to cook on the stovetop!
Overall a pretty tasty soup. Easy to make too. The only time-consuming part was preparing the vegetables.
It was Great. I only made the following changes: the bean pkge I purchased was 1#; had no white wine at home (so left out) and used only 1# of cajun seasoned sausage since that is all I had. SDamare (Slidell LA)
If I could give this more than 5 stars I would! I didn't add the wine (don't care for it) and I cooked it 2-3 hours longer than it called for. It is the perfect make a day ahead and heat back up soup. My husband and father-in-law are already asking when I am going to make it again.
Soup could be improved by cooking "Beans" completely before adding the tomatoes! Adding tomatoes too soon hardens the shells and makes soup too crunchy! I tried this recipe several times following the directions and the result was the same. Hard Beans!
This recipe must definitely be cooked longer. I gave mine a headstart by boiling on the stove for about 1 1/2 hrs first then putting in crockpot. I plan on adding rice and kielbasa sausage the next time I cook this one. I won Honorable Mention in the Chili/Soup Cookoff at my office with this recipe. It was a big hit.
This soup was great. We had it on one of the first cool nights of the fall and it was perfect. I substituted the wine with chicken broth and it still tasted good. I also used hot italian pork sausage and removed it from the casings so the soup has sausagey meatballs. Next time I would cut the recipe by a third though because it didn't all fit into my crock pot (I have the larger one) and I had to finish it in a pot on the stove. But I would definitely make this again.
