What's For Dinner? Bossy Bean Soup Slowly Cooked with Ham

Lousy picture. Sorry! Plus, I forgot to photograph before we started devouring it. I also forgot to make a nice bread. Oh well, it is like 5 degrees here and I can only concentrate on being warm.

Today I made up a recipe for bean soup that turned out pretty good! I just researched a few recipes online and went from there and put it in the slow-cooker for the day.

Jeff loved it and ate two bowls. I thought it was very good but might need a little herb flavor. I usually start bland as Jeff's palate is milder than mine.  Any suggestions for herbs or other add-ins?

Due to medication, Aidan and I cannot have parsley or spinach or other leafy greens. We have a serving of broccoli daily and I think chopped broccoli would be great in this dish.

The recipe is after the jump.

Bossy Bean Soup Slowly Cooked with Ham

16 oz Dried Navy Beans
1 Ham Shank
4-5 cups Chicken Broth
1 15 oz Can Tomato Puree
1 Large Clove of Garlic
Sliced Carrots
Sliced Celery

Prepare beans according to directions either by soaking overnight or using the quicker method. The quicker method consists of putting the beans in water and boiling.  Keep the water a couple inches above the beans. Let boil for 2 minutes. Take off the heat and let sit for an hour. Strain.

While waiting for the beans to ready themselves, mince up the garlic and put in the slow-cooker. Add 4-5 cups of chicken broth. Add tomato puree and stir. Place ham shank in the pot and add the strained beans when they are ready.

Set your slow-cooker to the low setting and let cook for 8-9 hours. The beans should be tender and the meat on the shank should be falling off the bone. 

You can add your vegetables (I used carrots and celery) right from the start if you like them mushy or add them about 1 1/2 hours before serving if you like them harder. Half hour before serving, take out shank and remove meat and add to soup. Toss bones somewhere or to someone.  Take out about 3 cups of beans and mash with a potato masher. Add back to soup. Stir.

Serve with parmesan, bread, crackers, or anything your heart desires.

Eat.

Some notes:
Adding bacon would be great but substituting it will probably change the flavor of the soup a bit.
Experiment with your vegetables and the types of beans.
You can use tomato paste and add water to make tomato puree (1 cup tomato puree = 2 Tablespoons tomato paste plus water to make 1 cup).
You can cook this on high in your slow-cooker - just follow the instructions in your slow-cooker manual (probably 3-4 hours or so).
This soup is a bit on the salty side. You can reduce the salty taste by substituting 1-2 cups of water for the broth.

Comments

[MIssy]

MMMM! Looks perfect to me as is! I might make rice to go with it... but that's just because we love rice! And if I were making it for my dad, I'd have to add a bell pepper... cause he puts bell pepper in EVERYTHING! But I like the way you made it... that sounds BEST!

[stuffed]

Oh, my! Exactly what I need on this rainy day.

[Yanoff]

For the sensitive palette, you could just your own add-ins on stand-by. I like to spice mine up with Tabasco (red) and the green jalepeno Tabasco since Kathy likes her soup milder than I do.

If you want to step it up a bit, maybe a pinch of cumin and if he's still handling it a pinch of cayenne pepper. Oh, and if you want to keep it a bit on the healthier side, substitute veggie dogs for the ham. :-)

Isn't a warm pot of soup just grand in the dead of winter?

[June]

This is one of my husband's favorites. Thank you for sharing the recipe as he's had to wait until we visit his mother so he can have this soup.