Bean Soup

We had Thanksgiving at my mom's house this year. She made the traditional turkey and we also had ham. I have to say everything was so delicious. But anyway no one wanted the ham bone, so I took it home with me to make some soup.

Personally I love split pea soup, but Mike is not a lover of this soup. He does like bean soup, so I decided to make a batch of hearty bean soup. Dried beans were used for this soup so I started the night before the cooking process with soaking the beans over night. Instead of the navy beans that the recipe called for I used dried northern beans. I am not sure what the difference is between the two of them, but the northern beans were a little bit larger of the two. There was no difference in the taste between the two of that I could tell.

The recipe that I used did not add any vegetable to the soup other than the beans. I prefer to have some vegetables mixed in with my soups, so I did add a potato and some carrots. I think it adds a little more flavor. I made this soup on Sunday and just let it simmer for most of the afternoon so that the beans were cooked through and the flavor of the ham bone went through the soup.

The soup turned out to be quite delicious. I have been taking it to work this week for my lunch and I must confess that I can't wait for lunch to roll around each day so that I can eat this soup. Don't worry I did share a little with the rest of my family. They also enjoyed it.

Beans Soup (Adapted from the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook)

1 pound dried beans navy or northern
3 quarts of water
1 meaty ham bone
1 large chopped onion
1 large potato cubed
1 cup of diced up carrots
1 bay leaf
Salt and pepper to taste

Rinse 1 pound dry navy beans; add 3 quarts cold water. Bring to boiling; simmer 2 minutes. Remove from heat. Cover let stand 1 hour. (Or, add beans to water; soak overnight.) Add 1 meaty ham bone, onion, diced potato, carrots, 1 bay leaf, salt and pepper to taste. Cover; simmer 3 to 3 1/2 hours, remove ham bone. Mashed beans slightly if you like, otherwise leave them whole. Cut ham off bone; add ham to soup. Serve.

Note: The recipe said to use the water that the beans soaked in over in over night for your soup, I did not do that I rinsed my beans and used fresh water.

View Printable Recipe