A Nice Drop Of Soup

It turned quite cold here so I made a little soup. This is a navy bean, tomato and bacon soup. There is no real recipe for it because I just made it up with things that I had on hand.

One thing I really liked about french life was the way in which delicious things were made from the most common product and leftovers. It like living in a world of natural cooks and I don't remember meeting anyone who didn't know how to cook. Of course most of the people I knew were chefs or in the hotel industry so I suppose that was normal.

Soup is a basic of french life and they have hundreds of recipes. It is eaten with crusty bread, a salad and a bottle of wine

If you watch any of the older Jean Gabin films, among many others of course, a tureen of soup is served for dinner every night. Maybe that is why I make such a lot of soup. My inner Jean Gabin.

There is no real recipe for this soup here. I chopped up a carrot / half an onion /stick of celery/ I then put a big piece of bacon in the a saucepan and let it give off some fat. Then i added a drop of vinegar which I quickly burned off. I then added the beans and the tomatoes with chopped garlic, a bay leaf or two and a sprig of thyme. I added a little flour to keep it together, seasoned it, brought it to the boil and then put it into the slow cooker where it is right now.