Ham and Bean Soup

I came home from a visit back east to an empty refrigerator and 4 degree weather. I do not feel like making the 45 minute trek to go food shopping. Everyplace in Montana is at least 45 minutes away from anything. So I remembered I had ham hocks and a package of cubed ham in the freezer and decided to make a pot of delicious, hardy ham and bean soup.

The secret to any good soup is the stock from which it is made. So first, the ham stock should be made first before adding any other ingredients because it takes a few hours to get the ham flavor fully out of the ham hocks. I might also mention I didn’t have potatoes but I did have a can of small potatoes in the pantry. If you have left over ham from the holidays, you will need about 2 cups of cubed ham for the soup, I would use ham hocks rather than a ham bone, but the bone will work too. I also added barley to the broth for some extra body. My soup turned out wonderful. I know yours will too.

Ingredients

• 2 ham hocks or a ham bone
• Enough water to cover the ham hocks
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 medium onion chopped
• 1 bag of dry navy, great northern, or cannellini beans, rinse well *1 cup of sliced celery
• 1 cup of sliced celery
• 1 cup or more of chopped carrots
• 2 cups of cubed potatoes
• 2 cups of chopped ham
• 1/3 cup of barley (optional)
• 2 chopped or grated garlic cloves
• 1/2 cup chopped parsley
• ¼ tsp pepper
• ½ tsp nutmeg
• 1 tsp salt

Directions

1. Place ham hocks in a Dutch oven and cover with cold water
2. Add chopped onion, celery, salt, bay leaves, and beans
3. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to simmer – simmer for about 1.5 – 2 hours until meat is tender and can be cut off the bone.
4. Remove meat from bones, discard the bones and cut meat into small pieces add to broth, remove bay leaves from the broth.
5. Add remaining ingredients and simmer for about 45 minutes or until carrots are tender.
6. Serve with crusty bread

*My mom never soaked her beans, I don’t presoak my beans either, I just add them to the water while the ham is cooking, they become soft and flavor the broth.