Friday, November 9, 2007

ham & bean soup

a few years ago i got on a kick of making "experimental soul" for the missionaries. i'd feed them once a month and each month i made a new soup i'd never tried before. in december that year, i came home from our ward christmas party with a hambone that had plenty of meat on it. so i went looking for a soup to make using my hambone. this is what i found:

1 lb. white beans, prepared
8 c. water

1 hambone

2 c. ham, diced
1 c. celery

1 onion, finely chopped
2 tbsp fresh parsley, finely chopped
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper

1 bay leaf


combine all ingredients in crockpot and cook on low for 12 to 14 hours.


modifications: i used white beans and 15 bean mix. there are a couple of ways to prepare beans; the bag should say how. i usually soak them overnight. because i had more beans than it called for, i ended up using only about half the water it called for, which resulted in more of a chili consistency soup than a soupy soup. it was tasty. i also season to taste rather than measuring out my salt and pepper. and knowing me, i probably threw in other seasonings--whatever looked good at the moment. i had a very meaty hambone, meaning there was a lot of meat left on it, so i didn't bother with the 2 cups of diced ham. when i came home from work that day and tried to pull the hambone out, it fell apart. and i've never tasted ham that tender. delicious. enjoy!

3 comments:

Natalie said...

Sounds yummy - I made my first homemade soup this year... Perhaps I'll try a hambone soup after the holidays, when I have a good hambone to use!

zeeny said...

Did you forget to mention that when you made it for the elders you got up at some crazy hour to have it done for them in time. Wasn't it around 3 or 4 in the morning?!

amelia said...

i think i got up at 3:30. cause the elders eat early so they can go out to appointments in the evening. so i had to put it all in and get it cooking by 4 in the morning.

but it would be easy to cook overnight and then reheat for dinner. so don't let the long cooking time turn you off.