When I was a kid I used to love the canned Bean and Bacon Soup. I guess it made my Mom happy because I would eat it several times a week, haha. I still love that type of bean soup with pork or bacon in it, it’s soul food for me, but I assure you, my soups way better than the canned stuff.
Big chunks of country style ribs add a humongous amount of flavor to the Navy beans, combine that with the mild spice from the mustard greens, onions, garlic, celery, and carrots, yum!
Ladle the Navy Beans, Mustard Greens and Country Style Ribs over some hot, fresh cornbread and a dash or two of Sriracha Sauce, and you’ll be a happy camper.
What is a Navy Bean?
A small, white bean native to the Americas, the Navy Bean (or Yankee Bean in Australia) got its name from the U.S. Navy. In the 1800s prior to refrigeration, dried beans were inexpensive, easy to store, easy to cook, nutritious, and filling. Perfect for feeding a crew of sailors out at sea without access to fresh food.
What are Country Style Ribs?
Country Style Ribs aren’t actually ribs, they have no bones and are actually part of the pork shoulder. Meatier than actual pork ribs and well-marbled they benefit from long slow cooking and are perfect in soups, stews, and slow-cooked beans.
What are Mustard Greens?
Mustard greens are from the plant the produces the mustard seed. Part of the Brassica family the leaves are large flat leaves with a heavy fibrous stem the texture similar to celery. Both the leaves and stem are edible, but the stem should be cut into small dice and cooked for a longer period of time, (the way you would cook celery). Some people like the stem others do not (I like it), it is listed as optional in the recipe.
- Mustard Greens are always dirty and seem to hold on to the sand and dirt they grow in, be sure to wash it carefully several times until there is no more grit in the sink.
- Mustard Greens have a delicate, peppery flavor. If cooked on their own, they can be prepared in the same way you’d cook spinach, collard greens or kale.
Here is my Navy Beans, Mustard Greens, and Country Style Ribs recipe:
Navy Beans, Mustard Greens, and Country Style Ribs
Ingredients
- 1 Pound Dried Navy Beans Soaked
- 2 Quarts Chicken Stock
- 1 1/2 Pounds Country Style Ribs Cut into 1-inch pieces
- 1 Cup Diced White Onion
- 2 Teaspoons Garlic Crushed and Chopped
- 1 Cup Diced Celery
- 4 Cups Diced Carrots 1/2-inch dice
- 1 Bunch Mustard Greens Coarsely chopped 1-inch pieces
- 1 Teaspoon Dried Thyme
- 2 Teaspoons Salt
- 1 Teaspoon Black Pepper
- 1-2 Teaspoons Sriracha Sauce Hot Sauce
Serve With
- Cornbread
- Sriracha Sauce
Instructions
- Soak the beans per manufacturer’s instructions, drain the soaking liquid and rinse
- Add the chicken stock, onions, celery, garlic, and country style ribs, bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for one hour
- *Optional* Strip the stems from the mustard greens and chop into small dice, add to the beans
- Add the diced carrots, salt, black pepper, thyme, and sriracha, return to a boil, reduce heat to low and simmer for one hour
- Coarsely chop the mustard greens into 1-inch pieces, wash 3-4 times (they have a lot of sand and grit)
- Add mustard greens, cover for 15 minutes
- Adjust seasonings, serve over cornbread
Nutrition
Thank you for visiting my Food Blog, I hope you enjoy my Navy Beans, Mustard Greens, and Country Style Ribs recipe, please come back and visit again soon! Bon appetit, Steven
And now what you really want to know…
Why do beans cause gas?
Let’s face it, that’s really the question on everyone’s mind! Beans will often cause people to be a little gassy, luckily, soaking dry beans can help reduce the problem of flatulence. Beans contain a type of complex sugar called ‘oligosaccharides’. Unfortunately, humans do not have the enzyme in our bodies necessary to digest the type of complex sugar found in beans. The result is that the oligosaccharides pass from the stomach into the large intestine undigested where it is consumed by bacteria causing fermentation. The byproduct of the fermentation is gas.
How to reduce flatulence caused by eating beans?
Canned beans should always be rinsed, the liquid in the can is saturated in the complex sugars that cause gas. Therefore, rinsing canned beans will remove a large percentage of the sugars that cause gas. The problem with canned beans and flatulence arises when you have canned beans that you buy specifically for the sauce, for example, BBQ Beans, Baked Beans, etc. Since you don’t want to rinse off all that flavor, the sauce is saturated in Oligosaccharides. It is a good reason to make your beans from scratch, dried beans to the rescue.
Oligosaccharides are water-soluble when you soak the beans over-night some of this sugar dissolves into the water. After soaking the oligosaccharides will be in the soaking liquid rather than in the beans themselves. Pouring the beans out through a colander and giving them a good rinse before placing the beans in fresh water for cooking will remove some of this unwanted sugar and should help in reducing the gas problem.
You need to soak dry beans. There are two ways to soak beans, overnight and a quick soak.
- Overnight Soak: simply place the beans in a large pot and cover with 2-3 inches of water, cover and let soak at least 12 hours. When ready to cook, simply drain and rinse the beans and add the cooking liquid of your choice; water, broth, stock, etc.
- Quick Soak: place the beans in a large pot and cover with 2-3 inches of water, place over high heat and bring to a boil. Remove from the heat and cover, let soak for around 3-4 hours. Same as the overnight method, when ready to cook, simply drain and rinse the beans and add the cooking liquid of your choice; water, broth, stock, etc.
