White Bean Soup with Ham

We needed something a lot healthier for dinner last night seeing as we gorged ourselves on highly non-dietetic cheesy rich gnocchi the night before. Woe is me, this being responsible is such a giant pain in the posterior. I'm only pulling your chain because the real reason for this soup is that I had a giant ham bone in the freezer that was taking up a lot of room. Yesterday was a much cooler day here too - we only topped up in the mid 80's so it's definitely soup weather.

 I did the old quick prep routine on the beans by boiling them for 5 minutes then covered the pot and let them sit for an hour or so. Meanwhile I sauteed a little bacon just because anything with bacon in it has got to be better, then added some chopped veggies to the pot followed by a selection of spices, chicken stock, the ham bone and beans then let the whole thing brew on the back of the stove for a while. The end result tasted slightly bland so I upped the flavor quotient with lots of coarse ground black pepper, fresh rosemary and thyme, then pureed a couple of cups of the mixture in the food processor to thicken up the pot of healthy goodness.

It was pretty darn tasty stuff let me tell you, particularly after I picked all the meat off the ham bone and returned it to the pot. The only real complaint is that I forgot the darn BEANO and the roofline of our house may have changed significantly overnight. Oh dear - what are the neighbors going to think?

 White Bean Soup with Ham (Inspired by Cooking Light)      

 1-1/2 cups dried navy beans

3 slices bacon, diced

1 large red pepper, chopped

1 large onion, chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

4 carrots, diced

1 teaspoon dried onion flakes

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper

Dash red pepper flakes

6 cups chicken stock

1 large ham bone or 2 smoked pork hocks

2 sprigs fresh rosemary

small bunch fresh thyme

1 bay leaf

1/2 cup fresh parsley, chopped

Sort and wash navy beans and place in large pot. Cover with minimum 2 inches of water, bring to a boil and boil hard for 5 minutes. Remove from heat, cover pot and let sit for 1 hour. Drain beans and set aside.

In large pot cook bacon over low heat until fat is rendered and bacon is crisp. Remove bacon from pan and set aside, leaving grease in pot. Add red pepper, onion, garlic, carrots, onion flakes, garlic powder, black pepper and pepper flakes. Cook until vegetables are soft. Add beans back into pot along ham bone. Add chicken stock enough to cover all ingredients. Bring to a boil and simmer for one hour until beans are just tender. Remove 2 to 3 cups of beans from pot and puree along with a little liquid in a food processor. Return pureed beans to soup pot. Add fresh rosemary, thyme and bay leaf and cook for additional half hour, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking. Remove ham bone from pot, and pick meat off. Return meat to pot along with reserved cooked bacon. Add chopped parsley just before serving. Taste for seasoning and add more pepper as required. Makes 8 to 10 servings. Download White Bean Soup with Ham

 

 

Comments

[Nanan]

Love a ham bone flavored - bean filled when the weather changes - lets celebrate the first day of fall - soup!!!!! Beautiful!!!! We went swimming to celebrate - it is still HOT here in the marsh - I figure that soup is still a couple of months away. hahahahaha

[June]

Lea - you're smart to wait. We were sweating buckets last night by the time we finished ours. Something cooler tonight for sure.

[Mags]

Beano....LOL! I'm sure you'd have heard the cat squeal if you raised the roof...LOL!

Great looking bean soup June!

[June]

Thanks Mags. Is it soup weather yet where you are?