Soup beans facts for kids

Soup beans are a popular and hearty meal, especially in the Southern United States. You'll find them a lot in the Appalachian Mountains area. These beans are usually served with tasty sides like cornbread and greens. People often add things like chopped onions or wild ramps on top.

Soup beans can be the main part of a meal. They can also be a side dish that goes with other foods. Long ago, in country areas, food was sometimes hard to find in winter. So, these dried beans became a very important food for families.

Kinds of Soup Beans

While soup beans are usually pinto beans, other types of beans are also used. Pinto beans are sometimes called "brown beans" in the mountains.

White Beans

Great northern beans and Navy beans are often used. People started using these more when they could buy different kinds of beans from stores. This dish is usually called "white beans."

White beans are often cooked with the juice from a country ham. Sometimes, the ham bone or pieces of ham are cooked with the beans. This makes them a special dish for holidays when hams are baked. White beans were once seen as a fancy food. This was because they were first available in towns to people who could afford more than one type of bean and ham.

Butter Beans

Butter beans are made from dried lima beans. They are cooked with smoked pork or ham. The sauce gets thick and creamy, which is why they are called "butter" beans. Like white beans, butter beans showed that a family was doing well. They were often a prized dish when served. Remember, "butter beans" only means dried lima beans. Fresh or canned limas are just called "lima beans."

Black-Eyed Peas

While these are almost never called "soup beans," they are cooked in a very similar way in the Appalachian region. Black-eyed peas are common where mountain culture meets other food traditions.

Like Hoppin' John, black-eyed peas became a common dish for New Year's Day. But in the mountains, people didn't usually eat rice. So, the peas were cooked with pork, like soup beans. They were often served with stewed tomatoes and collard greens.

How Soup Beans Are Served

Soup beans could be served at any meal. But they were often the main dish for a supper without meat. Traditionally, soup beans were served with other vegetables grown at home and homemade breads.

Cornbread

Before people could easily buy flour, thin, crispy yellow cornbread cakes were common. These were called hoecakes. Baked cornbread was also served with a soup-bean supper. Often, people would crumble cornbread into their bowl of beans. It's a bit like adding crackers to chili.

Potatoes

Irish white potatoes were usually served, especially in winter. They could be boiled, mashed, or fried. In lower areas, sweet potatoes are often served.

Greens

Most often, collard greens or turnip greens were eaten in the colder months. They were cooked slowly with smoked pork or bacon grease. In springtime, "kilt greens" were made. These were tender garden lettuces and wild plant leaves. They were dressed with a hot bacon and onion sauce and served warm.

Ramps or Onions

Strong wild onions called ramps were often served raw. They were cut up and put on the beans for flavor. This was important because other seasonings were not always easy to find. Sometimes, regular onions are used instead of ramps.

Chow-Chow

Chow-chow is a relish-like side dish. It is similar to a British relish called piccalilli. Chow-chow could be saved and eaten with beans all year long.

Modern Additions

Today, supermarkets and packaged foods have added new things to soup bean suppers. These were not traditional long ago.

• Salmon croquettes: Canned salmon became available, so salmon croquettes or patties were added. Their flavors go well together. Salmon, being a bought meat, was seen as a special treat.
• Sauerkraut and sausage: This dish is also known as sauerkraut and weenies. Frankfurters or smoked sausage are sliced and fried with sauerkraut. This is a common dish to have with soup beans.
• Macaroni and tomatoes: This is a common side dish in the mountain region. It usually has cooked macaroni and canned tomatoes.
• Macaroni and cheese: In the late 1900s, supermarkets made processed cheese and pasta easy to buy. Boxed macaroni and cheese was cheap and simple to add to a soup bean meal.