Irish Parliament Bean Soup ~ Vintage Recipe
Traditional Irish Parliament Bean Soup has been served for hundreds of years, if you believe folklore. A hearty and warm soup, there’s no reason you can’t make this at home for your family.
A popular soup in a local Florida pub, I was intrigued to track down a recipe for the soup and modify it for home use. But not after some humorous trial and error.
Some recipes just touch your heart and soul and beg for you to reinvent a moment in time. This is one of those recipes. I first tasted it on vacation and longed to be able to capture that easy, relaxed feeling that accompanied the bowl of soup.
The Vacation Story
Irish Parliament Bean Soup from Meg O’Malley’s Irish Pub in Melbourne, Florida. They offer this delicious soup on their menu for the traditional price of 18 cents. If you are in Melbourne, I’d suggest you stop by Meg’s for lunch, dinner, drinks, or whatever. You can’t miss!
The recipe for this soup was something I’ve been watching for ever since our visit about five years ago. Recently, I did a search for it and found what one person claims is the original recipe. Now, since I know that not everything you read on the Internet isn’t necessarily true, I took that claim with the proverbial pinch of salt. However, the recipe appeared to have all the ingredients I remembered, so I tried it.
The Adventure
I gathered the ingredients and this last weekend decided to test the recipe. It was pretty easy finding most of the ingredients required. Nearly every grocery store I know carries dried beans, carrots, celery and onions. Finding a ham bone was a little bit of a challenge. The first shopping trip resulted in no ham bone. Why? Because I forgot to write it on my list!
On my next trip, I remembered to write down “ham bone”, but the store where I usually shop didn’t have any in the meat case. Since it was late, I didn’t ask the butcher if there was a ham bone hiding in the back cooler.
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During the third trip out, I was able to locate a package of ham hocks. Now, although ham hocks are similar, they are not exactly: ham bone. By this time, I’d decided that a substitution would work just fine. In fact, I decided the ham hocks looked like they would work very nicely! And honestly, they did. Ideally, you would use a leftover ham bone from your holiday dinner.
I was also surprised at the difficulty I had locating bay leaves in my local stores. I checked several of the grocery stores for bay leaves on those many trips. If they had bay leaves in stock, I wasn’t able to read the label to find them. Which is possible, considering my eyesight. I did finally find some bay leaves and was ready to start cooking.
Make It a Meal:
While you certainly can make a meal of this Irish Parliament Bean Soup, it works well as a side dish also. For a light meal, add some of your favorite bread to the bowl of soup. Try Lunch Lady Corn Bread, Traditional Greek Cornbread or Classic Cornbread in Cast Iron. For something a little different, serve Sweet Potato or Savory Olive & Onion bread.
Making the Recipe
I followed the recipe to the letter and started on Saturday morning chopping up the carrots, celery and onions. Since I was working on the other weekend recipe for roast beef and it’s a time save to chop all the veggies at the same time. I figure that while I’m in the chopping mood, get all the dicing out of the way! That way I only have to clean up once.
Dried beans are quite nutritious and economical, but they take a little planning for preparation. Most recipes I’ve found that call for dried beans require that the beans are soaked overnight. Saturday I placed the two pounds of beans in my pan and added the water for soaking. When I saw the beans in my pan, I thought: That’s a lot of beans.
Sunday I pulled out my crock pot and began the steps to complete the recipe. One gallon of water was called for. I did a little cooking math and translated 1 gallon to 4 quarts, which at 4 cups to a quart is 16 cups. WHAT! 16 cups of water! I started counting.
I filled my crock pot. Literally, the crock pot was full and I hadn’t added *any* additional ingredients. I decided it would be wise to use the second crock pot also. Count out 8 cups of water into the second crock pot. Then I divided the remaining ingredients in half, placing some in each crock pot and set the temperature to low.
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The Lesson Learned
When you obtain a recipe from a restaurant, consider the portions they are working with. Most chefs have to feed a crowd each night and therefore the recipes they use tend to make large quantities.
This is in our favor when as customers, we don’t have to wait for the soup to cook (90 minutes) or hear the waiter say “sorry, we’re out”. Â However, at home, we generally are cooking for four or six people. The next time I make this recipe, I’ll be dividing the ingredient quantities in half or in quarters.
Since my family wasn’t going to eat two full crock pots of soup and freezing that much would definitely keep me set for soup lunches forever, I needed to find a way to share the soup.
I took one crock pot full of bean soup into the office and asked my coworkers to sample it. The consensus from my taste testers: Very Yummy Indeed.
I did end up freezing a good sized portion of soup. And I’m eating bean soup for lunch every day this week.
Irish Parliament Bean Soup Recipe
Ingredients:
Navy Beans, Ham Bone, Water, Onion, Celery, Carrots, Salt & Pepper, Thyme, Bay Leaves
Recipe Directions:
Chop, soak, simmer, enjoy!
Recipe attributed to Meg O’Malley’s Irish Pub in Melbourne, Florida
Irish Parliament Bean Soup for a Crowd
Recipe attributed to Meg O'Malley's Irish Pub in Melbourne, Florida
Ingredients
- 2 pounds Navy Beans dried
- 1 Ham Bone
- 1 gallon Water
- 1 medium Onion
- 4 stalks Celery
- 2 large Carrots
- pinch Salt & Pepper
- 1 teaspoon Thyme
- 2 Bay Leaves
Instructions
-
Rinse beans in cold water and soak overnight.
-
In 6 quart stock pan, add drained beans, ham bone, water and seasonings: bring to simmer.
-
Continue to simmer over a medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until beans are soft (about 1 1/2 hours).
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Dice the onion, celery and carrots.
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Add vegetables and cook until tender and soup has thickened.
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Remove ham bone, adjust seasonings and enjoy with Irish Brown Bread or your favorite crackers.
Irish Parliament Bean Soup for the Family
Ingredients
- 1/2 pound Navy Beans dried
- 1 quart Water
- 1/2 small Onion
- 1 stalk Celery
- 1 small Carrot
- Salt & Pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon Thyme
- 1/2 Bay Leaf
- 1 Ham Bone
Instructions
-
Rinse beans in cold water and soak overnight.
-
In large pan or stock pot, add drained beans, ham bone, water and seasonings: bring to simmer.
-
Continue to simmer over a medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until beans are soft (about 1 1/2 hours).
-
Dice onion, celery, carrots. Add vegetables and cook until tender and soup has thickened.
-
Remove ham bone, adjust seasonings and enjoy with Irish Brown Bread or your favorite crackers.
Note:
Since I didn’t have a stock pot (it’s on my wish list!) I used my crock pot. I cooked this soup on low for 4 hours. As I was assembling the ingredients, I didn’t pay attention to the amounts in the recipe. It should have been a warning when the first item is 2 pounds of dried beans. Two Pounds!
Meg O Malley’s is an Irish pub in Melbourne, Florida. It’s a wonderful place to visit, but they must serve more people in a single day than I do in a couple of weeks at home. Duh.
I ended up using both of my 4 quart crock pots to cook this soup! You may want to halve the recipe if you are cooking for your family.
Approximate Nutritional Information:
Servings Per Recipe: 12, Amount Per Serving: Calories: 86, Fat: 1.3g, Cholesterol: 6g, Sodium: 152mg, Carbs: 13g, Protein: 6g
(please remember these are approximate and will vary slightly based on your ingredient selections.)
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How did you alter with the crock pot times? Did I put it on high for an hour and a half then add veggies and put on low? How long did you let it simmer after that?
Hi Melissa,
Since my crock pot doesn’t heat as fast as the stove top, I had to allow a longer time in the crock pot. High for an hour and half was pretty close to having the beans tender, so I added the other veggies then. I would suggest watching the beans a bit closer than the clock, tho. If they get to the point where you can smash them with a spoon and very little force, they’re ready for the rest of the veggies. After putting in the carrots, celery and onions, I kept the crock pot on low for another few hours. Again, I used the spoon/fork test to check for done-ness of the veggies. I like to simmer on a low heat for awhile to allow all the flavors to blend.
Thanks for asking me to clarify!
ps – make sure you are making the correct quantity to feed your crowd, this recipe makes a huge amount of beans and I’d recommend cutting the amounts in half.
I made this and it was to much water.
Sandra,
I know the recipe calls for a LOT of water. How long did you cook the soup for? Usually the dried beans absorb a tremendous amount of water.
I coooked it on low for 4 hours.
Not sure what happened,Sandra. I’m sorry it didn’t turn out as you expected. Please let me know if you try it again with less water. I’d probably go to 3/4 gallon, if I were reducing the amount.
I love white bean soups…and I especially love using ham in them. This looks so comforting and delicious today. Bookmarking for later…thanks for the recipe inspiration
Traci, I appreciate the note, I hope you love this recipe when you get around to making it. It is delicious!
I am just thinking about what to make for lunch today, and this is looking like a really good option!
Hi Cathleen, do you still have that Easter ham bone? This is a great way to use that!
Just make sure you use the “for family” recipe … or you’ll have soup coming out of your ears!
I do love beans whatever variations and I do love soups, so this is a much to try
Beans are one of the perfect foods, right? So many ways to use them. Please come back and tell me how you like this soup!
This is my favorite soup recipe!! I used to work at a hospital that served this every Thursday. I have a leftover ham bone from Easter and I’ll be making a batch of this soup!
Yay Pam!
I’ll bet the hospital doubled the recipe! LOL
Enjoy your soup.
What a fabulous budget friendly meal this is. Thanks so much for this flavorful and easy to make recipe!
Debi,
You’re welcome. You’re also right, it is flavorful and super easy on the budget.
Hi, I actually at the real McCoy at Meg O’Malley’s just today. It was absolutely delicious. Still just .18¢ for a cup. I ate way too much food today, I’m going to have to lay down for a nap now. Thanks for the recipe!
Awesome!! They have a great menu and I know how easy it is to over-indulge! Thanks for letting me it’s still 18c!
No quite but good. I lived in downtown Mel for 20yr and while this was very good, it misses the mark.
The basic recipe may tell you to cook it for such and such a time but Megs bean soup sits and simmers for hours.
You can’t see a pieces of vegetables as in your picture. Everything is melded together
Maria, thanks for the feedback from a native!
Hi, I am from Melbourne, Florida and Meg O’Malley is one of our families favorite restaurants. We were just there 2 nights ago.
Each time we go everyone gets a cup of this soup. For .18 you can’t go wrong.
However, I have been making my own version of it for over 40 years. Here are the things I do.
Instead of water I use the same amount of chicken stock. I also use smoked ham hocks instead of just a ham bone.
This recipe is actually very old. From a time when all your meats were smoked to preserve them. I also cook this on the stovetop in a large cast iron pot or a pot with a bottom. You need it to boil for approx 10 to 20 minutes then bring the temp down to simmer. It needs to thicken. It shouldn’t be like a consomme. You can also help it along by slightly mashing your beans when they are soft. If you have done it correctly you will not see the carrots or celery any longer. By this stage they should have incorporated and broken down. Leaving you with a thicker broth.
This soup is versatileal so you can change up. I have used shredded chicken in replace of the ham. Also, I have added a small can of whole tomatoes to the pot.
Paula,
Thanks so much for sharing your version! I love hearing about other people’ssuggestons.
Noel
Hi Paula! I’m also from Melbourne and love Meg o malleys soup, I never tried to make it at home though. Can you post how you make it being a native?
Hi Jessica, I am starting a pot this morning. I soaked 1lb of beans overnight. This morning I drained and rinsed them. Put them in my large stock pot with a thick heavy bottom.
I add what ever meat I am going to use. This morning I am using smoked neck bones.
I added one bay leaf, about a tsp of dried thyme, 3 cloves of garlic, salt and pepper to taste.
Then I add enough chicken broth to go about 2 inches over the beans. Bring it to a quick boil for 5 to 10 minutes and then I lower to med to low heat. Stir from time to time.
Now, you may need to add more broth or water to it as it cooks. Depends on how low it gets.
When the beans are soft add your veggies. When they are soft I mash them down with some of the beans. This will thicken the liquid.
Taste it and add what is needed like salt and pepper. I have also added a small can of whole canned Italian tomatoes. It’s done when the beans and veggies are soft and the broth has become thicker and the taste is how you want it.
*Enjoy*
I’m so glad I came across this recipe. I live in Melbourne well actually I live in Palm Bay but most of our activities, we live in Melbourne anyway I was just sharing our experience the last time we went to Meg O’Malley‘s, because it’s our favorite place and when we go there, it’s our tradition you have to get the bean soup especially since it’s only $.19 a Cup. My sister lives in Oregon and whenever she comes to visit something that we always take company as a wonderful experience. The prices are great in the atmosphere is wonderful. Make sure you always take friends and share your photos. if you ever go back again, make sure you try their trio where you get shepherds, pie pot, pie and bangers plus you get one of their wonderful rules which is My Husband‘s favorite meal request. I always get their Irish stew. Our meal is usually under $30 for both of us, including the Parliament soup in a cup have a blessed week !
Hi Paula! Love this “shared adventure” story. Thanks for chiming in… trust me … if we get back to Melbourne, we’ll be stopping in to Meg’s