In my opinion there is nothing more comforting than a big pot of steaming homemade soup gently simmering on the stove on a chilly day. We are big fans of soup in our house. We try to take advantage of what is in season in our area as well as spin offs of what we have on hand. Enjoy our White Bean and Ham Soup!
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(we love our Wusthof serrated bread knife shown above)
“Soup is like duct tape. It fixes everything”
After the holidays we always look forward to using the leftover ham bone from a ham we oven baked or smoked on the grill for Christmas dinner.
Ingredients:
- Ham bone with about a pound of ham still on the bone
- One bag of your choice of dried beans
- 5 cloves of fresh garlic
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 2 Yukon gold potatoes, diced
- 3 carrots, diced
- 3 celery stalks, diced
- 1 gallon of chicken stock
- 2 Bay leaves
- 1 teaspoon of fresh thyme leaves or 1/2 teaspoon of dried thyme leaves
- 1 teaspoon of white pepper
- 1 can of green chilies (optional)
- cooking oil of your choice for sweating vegetables
Instructions:
Soak beans overnight in enough cold water to cover the beans.
Drain and rinse the beans.
In a stock pot combine the beans, chicken stock, and hambone. Simmer, skimming and stirring from time to time, for two hours.
Strain the broth into another pot.
Remove the hambone.
Dice the meat, and reserve.
Heat the oil. Add the onions, carrots, and celery and sweat until onions are translucent, 4 to 5 minutes.
After the onions are translucent add the white pepper, the bay leaves, and thyme leaves to that mixture.
(in above image we used this amazing stock pot)
Add the garlic and sauté it until the aroma is apparent.
Add a 7 ounce can of mild green chilies.
Add the beans, broth, and the potatoes and simmer until the beans and the potatoes are tender, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
If you prefer a thicker consistency to the soup reserve half of this mixture and puree.
Recombine the puree and reserved ham with the remaining soup.
Return the soup to simmer and adjust your seasonings with salt and pepper.
Tips:
Examine the beans before soaking or cooking. Remove any beans that look discolored shriveled or broken and obviously remove any pebbles or other foreign objects. Dried beans should look consistent in color and texture.
If you forget to soak the beans overnight, you can boil the beans on the stove top until tender the day that you are making the soup.
Two ham hocks could be substituted for the hambone.
A hambone can last up to three months in the freezer.
The roasted green chilies give the soup an extra flavor profile. These chilies are not considered to be hot, but the roasted flavor is special. Try it …you’ll like it!
Interesting tid-bits and history of soup
Evidence of the existence of soup can be found as far back as 20,000 BC. Boiling was not a common cooking technique until the invention of waterproof containers which probably came in form of clay vessels. Animal hides and watertight baskets of bark or reeds were used before this. To boil the water hot rocks were used.
The word soup comes from French soupe.
Soup is a primarily liquid food, generally served warm or hot but may be cool or cold, that is made by combining ingredients of meat or vegetables with stock, milk or water. Hot soups are characterized by boiling solid ingredients in liquid in a pot until the flavors are extracted, forming a broth. Soups are similar to stews, and in some cases, they may not be clear distinction between the two; however, soups generally have more broth than stews.
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What are your favorite cold weather soup recipes? Leave us a comment below!! We will reply!! ♥ ♥ ♥
8 Comments
Yummy. I love soup.
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