very mediocre

I've been unsuccessful with the multi-bean mixes. Different type beans require different cooking times. Some beans would still be tough while others were cooked to mush. Wish I had better news. How strange that Cajun bean soup would call for Italian Sausage? :)

/tricia

I use them often, Tricia is right about the uneven cooking but I don't mind some being mushy. I make very small batches of soup for one person. The last bag I soaked the whole bag overnight and used just what I needed and froze the rest. My favorite bean soup has barley and lots of veggies. I just made this yesterday with sum with smoked ham shanks I cooked in the pressure cooker. Beans are not my friend as they bother my tummy, so I add about half vegetables. Patty

Not thrilled here. I made the mistake of buying a big jug of multi-bean soup at Costco. Made it once last winter (2012) and never bothered during 2012-13.

It's not just the cook time but there were some beans I just didn't care for.

I use the Hurst bean soup mix. I don't follow the recipe or use the flavoring package but the mix is great.

The Bean Soup Mix that I have bought from The Fresh Market here in NC is quite good. I've made it a number of times and saved the recipe that came with the bag of beans. They used to tie on a tiny bottle of Tobasco sauce, don't know if they still do that.

Now I buy a bag of mixed beans at the grocery store and use The Fresh Market recipe:

1 lb. mixed beans
1/2 lb. kielbasa sausage
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 TB Worcestershire sauce
1 TB dried basil
juice of 1 lemon
1 chopped carrot
1 med. (16 oz.) can tomatoes
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 t. black pepper
salt to taste
parmesan cheese

Soak beans overnight. Simmer for 1 hour in 3 qts. water. Add all in the ingredients except for the kielbasa and cheese. Simmer for another hour. Add kielbasa and simmer one more hour. Serve hot, sprinkled with parmesan.

The fresh lemon juice is key to this recipe! I think you could use andouille, Italian, or bulk breakfast sausage instead of the kielbasa in this recipe with good results.

I had made a note of what 12 beans were in their mix:

green split peas
black beans
red lentils
plain brown lentils
black-eyed peas
pinto beans
kidney bean
yellow split peas
garbanzo beans
lima beans
navy beans
great northern beans

I like Trader Joe's 17 bean and lentil soup mix. I soak the mix overnight so don't encounter the not-cooked enough problem. I use chicken broth instead of the plain water called for, & add chopped celery & carrots & sometimes a bay leaf. Sometimes I will add chopped ham. Yum.

I've never tried the multi-bean soups. I always wondered about the cooking times for the different varieties.

I do make cannelini bean soup all the time. I made a batch a week ago as it seemed like the thing to do with the never ending snow. I've been buying the beans at a The Wedge coop for years. They were out so I got them from Whole Foods. They looked nice and were uniform in size. I soaked them overnight. Therefore I was surprised that after making the soup some of the beans were soft, some were still really hard and some were total mush. I've never had that happen where there was such a descrepancy in texture of the beans.

I have given up on this stuff. We love the first 14 beans, delicious, but the 15th and 16th beans never get soft enough for our taste. It's better/easier/cheaper to buy several kinds of beans you know you like and mix them up yourself. I've always discarded the flavor packet anyway.

One note though, you can GROW most of the beans from this package. So for about $2, you can have a bunch of different bean seeds.