I've frequently served a good lettuce based salad with beans, in fact, that's what I usually do. However, if that doesn't suit you, what about a spinach salad? I like to add dried cranberries and orange slices to my spinach salad for something different and refreshing, topped with a basalmic vinaigrette. Or, a rice and tomato salad, like the one that Ina Garten has in one of her cookbooks. My only concern about that is it might be too much brown for one meal, but it's a real tasty salad. Here's the recipe from Food Network.

Prep Time:5 minInactive Prep Time:--Cook Time:40 min
Level: Easy
Serves: 6 servings

Ingredients
1 cup Texmati brown rice
2 teaspoons kosher salt, divided
1/4 cup Champagne or rice wine vinegar
2 teaspoons sugar
1 tablespoon good olive oil
Freshly ground black pepper
1 pound ripe tomatoes, large-diced
1 cup packed basil leaves (1 large bunch), chopped

Directions
Bring 2 1/4 cups water to a boil and add the rice and 1 teaspoon of the salt. Return to a boil, cover, and simmer for 30 to 40 minutes, until the rice is tender and all the water is absorbed. Transfer the rice to a bowl.

Whisk together the vinegar, sugar, olive oil, remaining teaspoon of salt, and a pinch of pepper. Pour over the rice. Add the tomatoes and basil. Mix well and check the seasonings. Serve at room temperature.

Sally

I think some grilled veggies would be good. Or vegetarian fajitas. A nice colorful bunch of green, yellow, and red peppers, onions, squash, etc. Serve with some limes, cilantro, sliced avocado, sour cream, some salsa.

Over the holidays, I served Navy bean soup, an assortment platter I made of crackers, some cheeses, hummus, fresh fruit and for dessert -truffles from TJ's. Some older family members asked, didn't I have plain old Saltines? ~LOL. Which I did thankfully. They ate almost everything.
Picking away at the platter over good conversation.

Bean soup is pretty darn healthy and filling. I add a diced carrot to mine for a splash of color (sorry AnnT). Cornbread is perfect to serve with bean soup. An easy tray of fruits and cheeses and a few crackers and you have everything you need without killing yourself. Enjoy!

Often, for the two of us, bean soup is a meal in itself (along with some cornbread), but if I were having more people over, I'd probably add either some appetizers (jalapeno poppers?), the fruit/cheese tray or a good spinach salad served as a first course.

Judi

Wow, you guys are great! Since I really don't like to cook and don't very often, I rarely visit cooking sites. But I will remember this. Thanks so much!
I like the spinach salad, it's easy and quick. Plus with fruit it will add a lot of color and nutrition and be more palatable for the kids. It's a salad but isn't lettuce. That fits (at least in my mind).
A cheese and fruit tray would also be quick and easy (no cooking involved!). I just think beans need something green. :)
I'll keep the rice and tomato salad recipe, that sounds really good, but just not for tonight. In fact, that would make a good lunch today!
Thanks again for all the quick replies. I'm already in love with you folks.
Julie

Julie, welcome to the cooking forum!

I usually just serve beans and cornbread, I always figure that beans are a vegetable. Yeah, yeah, I know....

I also add carrots to my navy bean soup for color, and usually some onions and celery, so there are a FEW veggies in there.

I like the spinach and fruit salad idea, I'll try to remember that because usually we just had a plate of mixed raw veggies to start if I had anything with soup and cornbread.

Annie

I eat bean soup almost every day. I often have a salad with it. I like that especially with a tangy balsamic dressing. If I had company coming I would buy the fancy lettuce and mix that in with romaine. I don't buy iceberg any more. Tasteless, IMHO and no nutrition for the dollar. Also can add croutons for even more crunch. Depending on the soup, ceasar salad would be good.
Also good idea of fruit and cheese platter. Cheese compliments the protein in bean soup and cornbread for more nutrition. I put sunflower seeds in my salad for even more protein complimenting. Or a tangy blue cheese, walnut and pear salad, which is also yum. Maybe add some fennel, which is a digestive aide. For that kind of salad, a dressing of olive oil, lemon or orange juice, S&P to taste, and a dollop of honey to taste if you are using lemon juice. Can use goat cheese or feta cheese instead of blue, depending on your taste and avialability and price. Can also sub apples for pears.
A raw veggie tray with cheese instead of fruit would be good too, that way people can pick the veggies they like. Something crunchy is good with soup.
I also like the idea of jalepeno poppers or just stuffed, baked jalepenos (stuff with a cheese mixture, lots of recipes out there). Take out the ribs and seeds and the jalepenos shouldn't be so bad, but you could always sub a milder chili, like ancho or sweet yellow salad peppers.

Oh, I forgot to mention, as a bean eater from way back, the key to happy digesting with beans is to keep the meal light and don't overeat. The worst thing to do it eat a big bean and other fiber meal and then go to bed shortly after. You will feel out of sorts the whole next morning. Beans have a lot of fiber so you don't need to load up the rest of the meal with fiber. Unless your family is totally used to a high fiber diet, which most people aren't.

I was going to suggest you serve "beano" with it. That would be my side dish. :)

Sounds like you have the meal covered. Enjoy.

Jo

As a diehard meat eater, I assume you have plenty of ham in the soup? Otherwise, I would want some meat of some sort.

In my world bean soup is black bean or pinto, it's a Southwest thing. Which is why veggie fajitas sounded perfect to me. Navy or white bean soup requires another set of flavors.

Well, it's over and the kitchen is pretty well cleaned up. We had the bean soup (BTW, it was Great Northern Beans) with plenty of ham in it. I made two bowls of spinach salad. Two bowls because I didn't have a single bowl large enough and I didn't have enough of one dressing for one bowl. :) Along with the spinach I put in a chopped apple, a handful of strawberries, some grapes and a can of mandarin oranges, I added some bacon bits, feta cheese and walnuts. One salad had a ranch dressing, the other italian. They were so pretty, I thought about taking a picture. The cornbread was three boxes of Jiffy Mix, my personal favorite.
Everyone enjoyed the meal. There were a couple bowls of soup left and a few pieces of spinach in one bowl (the fruit was all gone).
Good company, interesting conversation and now I get to tell you how the dinner went. All in all a great evening! I'll be back and thanks again!

Julie, it sounds like a perfect meal, shared with people you love.

Yes, you should have taken pictures, I'd have loved to see them.

Oh, and that Jiffy Mix? I'm from Michigan, home of Jiffy Mix, LOL. I like it occasionally myself...

Annie

Sounds like a perfect evening! Thanks for reporting back on your success!

I like Jiffy Mix as well - my Mom was a from scratch cornbread in a cast iron skillet maker. I got the skillet - my sister got the soiled recipe used for many years. Both of us think we won!

LOL Jo! I would need Beano with bean soup too. I find beans very filling so we won't need anything to go with the soup. If I really want to add something on the side, a garden salad will do it. Yea, I also assume there will be some sort of meat i.e. ham in the soup. My husband and little man probably will like to have bread with the soup, then complain eating too much! LOL

Al

Jiffy mix is good stuff. I doctor it, of course!

That's one of my family's favorite meals, a big pot of navy bean or great northern soup (my mom actually makes a good homeade one that even my super picky dad likes) and Jiffy mix cornbread. I grew up on it and love it. It is the perfect size too, for single me. I am very disappointed that I can't get Jiffy products in the stores near me in PA. I love their frosting too, perfect size for camping to make 'smores.

My home state of Michigan is a big producer of beans too, so your meal helped keep the poor mitten state going! There's a bean cannery just up the road from my hometown, (Randall Beans).

Here is a link that might be useful: Michigan beans

Your meals sounds good, but for those in my family that don't care for beans, I will also have maybe some smoked sausage, fried potatoes and cole slaw. I always cook Great Northern beans, not always with ham, sometimes bacon. Yes and corn bread too.

Sue

I just made bean soup for dinner tonight. I use Lysander's brand. It has lots of different kinds of beans and a seasonings packet in it and I add a ham hock for flavor. Add carrots, potatoes, and onion as well. Serve it with hard rolls and fruit salad. Tonight we had apples with bananas and grapes. Sometimes I put out cheese for a change. After Christmas, I made stock from my Honey ham bone and used that broth for a pot of the soup. It had a totally different flavor than normal cause of the sweetness of the brown sugar glaze on the ham. Had lots of slivers of the ham in it too.

My Mom likes to have a side dish of braised cabbage with her bean soup. I mean, if you're going for gassy, why not go all the way? ;>)

And I have always made 15 bean soup - if not making black bean or lentil, etc.

LOL!! You all are lucky....I am banned from eating bean soup for the obvious reasons hehe!! And beano does NOT work...tried that!!! So for my bean soup dinner, I would be allowed to eat only the cornbread.....

Barnmom, if you're still visiting this thread, I liked your idea of grilled veggies to go with the beans. I'll have to remember that.

Julie, welcome to the forum. I'm so glad your dinner party went well. Your salad sounds yummy.

Sally

I love a bean soup. Doesn't love me. :( I didn't have a lot of trouble with my pea soup, though. Wonder why?

Julie, welcome from me, too! Where are my manners?

Eileen

I'm way late to the party, but I like to toss my greens right into the soup (white beans usually and a good smoky bone or hocks).

Chard, beet, spinach, kale, whatever!
This, along with a couple of carrots, celery and onion rounds out the flavor.

Always with a pinch of rosemary, bay leaf, sage, S & P.

Yum!
And I just picked up my smoked meat last Saturday........I think I NEED soup!

Deanna