Spam Western Bean Soup

Spam Western bean soup is the kind of pantry meal that came out of mid-century resourcefulness and somehow keeps winning over weeknight cooks. Sweet-sour tomato broth, two cans of pinto beans, sliced carrots, chunks of Spam, and a base of onion sauteed in oil until golden. It tastes far better than the ingredient list suggests.

The sweet-sour combination of brown sugar, cider vinegar, Worcestershire, mustard, and chili sauce is doing all the heavy lifting flavor-wise. Mashing half the pinto beans with a fork before they go in is the move that gives the broth its body; whole beans alone would just float in thin tomato water.

Spam goes in at the end so the cubes hold their edges instead of falling apart in the simmer. Two minutes is enough to heat them through. Watch the salt; everything in the can section here is sodium-heavy, so taste before reaching for the salt shaker.

Pro Tips

• Use low-sodium chicken broth and reduced-sodium Spam if you can find them; full-strength versions will cross the line into too salty.
• Brown the Spam cubes in a dry hot pan for a minute before adding for crispier edges and deeper flavor.
• Mash the beans against the side of the pot to skip dirtying a separate bowl.
• Soup tastes better the next day; the flavors marry and the broth thickens further as the beans break down.

Variations

• Swap pinto beans for black beans or great northern beans.
• Add a teaspoon of smoked paprika and a pinch of cumin for a smoky Tex-Mex profile.
• Use diced ham or kielbasa in place of Spam if that is what is on hand.