A day or so before you want to make the soup, put the dry beans in a large bowl with water to cover a good 3 inches above the beans. Let the beans sit under the light in your oven overnight, then drain and rinse the beans. Put the rinsed beans back in the bowl WITHOUT water, and back under the light in your oven to sprout. Should take about 24 hours or less to sprout – they sprout nice and quick when kept warm. Rinse the beans a few times during the day. This sprouting process makes the beans easier on the gut to digest and makes more of the nutrients in the beans available to absorb.

In a large stock pot fry the bacon and scoop out with a slotted spoon to set aside. Leave the bacon grease in the stock pot to sautee your veggies in.

Saute the onion, carrot, and celery in the bacon grease with large pinches of salt over medium high heat for about 10 minutes or longer. The salt draws out their moisture and sweetens the veggies.

Add the garlic and cook for a minute.

Add the stock and seasoning and bring to a boil.

Add the beans and cook until the beans are bite tender – should take around 30-60 minutes.

Take out about ½ of the soup and into a large mixing bowl, and use an immersion blender to blend that portion of the soup and return it to the pot. This gives the soup a creamy texture. You can skip this part if you don’t want that. You could use a regular blender for this step too.

Add in the cooked bacon and the spinach in at the end and cook at medium heat until the spinach wilts.