Frugal 15 Bean Soup at Pinto Bean Prices

15 bean soup is one of my favorite dinner staples but 1 pound of the "15 Beans" is over $4.00! That price moves them out of "Frugal" and into "Extravagent in my book! I have figured out a way to get my multi-bean fix without that high price by mixing the beans myself.

I started with a 5 gallon bucket and 10 pounds of the cheapest beans I could find: pinto beans on sale for $4.99 for 10 pounds. As I see other beans on sale I add them to the bucket:

1 pound of Baby Lima Beans at $1.45

1 pound of Small Navy Beans at $1.28

1 pound of Black Beans at $0.99

2 pounds of Garbanzo Beans at $0.85 per pound

I just add what comes on sale and never buy anything over $1.50 a pound. To balance the price and add to the mix, I also added Pearl Barley at $0.66 a pound and Split Peas at $0.59 a pound. At first we were eating mainly pinto beans but as I have added more sale items the variety has grown

When I am ready to make some soup--I just stir the top of the bucket and scoop out a couple of cups of the mixed beans! I could also stir up the whole bucket at this point and scoop all the beans into quart containers and use the bucket for something else until I need to make more 15 Bean Soup Mix!

Crock Pot 15 Bean Soup
2 cups of Mixed Beans
2 Carrots, chopped
1/2 zucchini, chopped
1 onion, chopped
2 stalks of celery, chopped
2 tablespoons of Ham-Base(Ham Bouillon)
Spices to taste.
up to 3 quarts of Water

Put everything in a 1 gallon crock pot, fill with the water. Turn on Low and cook 8-12 hours until the beans are done. Add a bit of meat if desired.

Makes about 16 servings of 15 bean soup for less than $0.25 per serving.