Brown Bean Soup

Place the beans in a large, heavy soup pot, add water to cover by 2-inches, and place over high heat. Bring to a rolling boil and boil for 2 minutes. Remove from the heat and let it stand for 1 hour.

Add salt, return to high heat and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer the beans until they are just tender, but not mushy, about 1 hour. Drain the beans, rinse well, and reserve.

In a large Dutch oven over medium heat, cook the bacon until it begins to render some of its fat. Add the onions, turnips, carrots, and leeks and saute for 10 minutes. Add the remaining ingredients up to and including the ginger.

Bring to a simmer, cover, and cook, barely simmering for 1-1/2 hours, or until all the vegetables are very soft. Remove from the heat and cool slightly.

Puree one-third to one-half of the soup (depending on desired consistency of the finished soup) in a food processor fitted with a steel chopping blade. Stir the puree back into the soup and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Preheat the broiler. Cut sausage diagonally into 1/4-inch slices. Place the slices on a rack in a shallow pan and broil until lightly browned on both sides.

Transfer to absorbent paper to drain excess fat and then add the sausage to the soup (Can be made up to this point up to 2 days ahead, transferred to tightly covered containers, and refrigerated, or it can be made up to a month in advance and frozen).

To reheat the soup, first skim off any fat from the surface and allow soup to come to room temperature.

Transfer the soup to the Dutch oven and place over low heat. Stir in 2 tablespoons of the parsley, bring to a simmer and cook 5 minutes.

Serve in the Dutch oven or transfer to a tureen. Garnish with the remaining parsley.