This basic bean soup has been served every day in the Senate for over 100 years and symbolizes why we need more flavor in Congress

• The same simple bean soup has been served to members of Congress every day since 1903.
• The white bean soup with ham hocks has just four ingredients and limited seasoning.

Senate Bean Soup — also called House Bean Soup, depending on which congressional kitchen you're eating from — has been a staple served to lawmakers and their guests every day in the halls of Congress for roughly 120 years.

"According to one story, the Senate's bean soup tradition began early in the 20th century at the request of Senator Fred Dubois of Idaho, who, as chair of the committee overseeing the Senate Restaurant, passed a resolution in the committee requiring that bean soup be on the menu daily," the official Senate website reads in an entry about the tradition of the soup. "Another story attributes the request to Senator Knute Nelson of Minnesota, who expressed his fondness for the soup in 1903 and insisted that it be on the menu each day."

In the House, the lore behind the soup is slightly different, per the Office of the Historian website, which reads: "Bean soup became a permanent fixture in the institution when Speaker Joe Cannon of Illinois discovered that his favorite meal had not been prepared by the kitchen staff on a hot, summer day in 1904. Dismayed by the omission, the Speaker directed that bean soup be served in the House every day, regardless of the weather."

The recipe's bare-bones ingredient list includes navy beans, ham hocks, onion, and butter. Dubois' variation of the soup, which is recorded on the Senate site, contains celery, parsley, garlic, and a quart of mashed potatoes (yes, really). Both Senate versions are boiled in water, not stock, and Dubois' modifications exclude seasoning of any kind, while the base recipe includes salt and pepper.

The House version, a slight variation on the famous Senate restaurant bean soup recipe published in a 1955 House restaurant menu, calls for Michigan beans and omits the onion, salt, and pepper.

There is nary a bay leaf in sight.

While the soup boasts over a century of historical significance, with the kitchen omitting the dish from the menu on just one recorded day during WWII since the tradition began, the basic soup is a simple but powerful example of the much-needed upgrades and new flavors needed in Congress.

This isn't a dig at the humble hero that is a good soup, but even pantry-clearing meals on a budget need not be so bland. Consider the depth of flavor one can achieve merely by substituting stock for the water or adding a single herb. As much as this recipe could be transformed into a nourishing, delicious meal with just a few small changes, Congress would also benefit immensely from a little variation.

Today, Congress remains less diverse than the US as a whole, with non-Hispanic white Americans representing 75% of voting members, according to statistics maintained by the Pew Research Center.

While female representation in Congress is at an all-time high, women comprise just 28% of all members.

The 13 publicly out LGBTQ+ Congresspeople make up just 2% of the House and Senate, compared to 6.5% of the rest of the population.

As of a 2020 report from OpenSecrets, more than half of Congress are millionaires. And, on average, members of Congress are 20 years older than the rest of the country.

In short, our elected representatives don't feel like they represent the average American because most congressional members don't.

So it's no wonder they're so out of touch — they're stuck in a timewarp where four-ingredient bean soup without salt is a delicacy worthy of eating daily.