White Bean, Ham, and Veggie Soup

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Jill

Aspiring Cowgirl
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This soup is really ingredients in amounts to your own and your family's taste. I'm posting how we make it, but it is somethiing that is very easily adjusted. It's a healthy, but delicious soup!

  • Ham bone or cubed ham meat
  • White beans -- soak these over-night, then drain them and rinse -- this is the bagged / dried kin of beans
  • Celery that is cut / chopped per your preference
  • Green / Red / Yellow (your choice or combination) cut and diced
  • Carrots, diced or sliced, as you prefer
  • Onions (diced or dried minced -- your choice)
  • Tomatoes -- petite diced, from a can (you pick the amount)
  • Parsley, to your taste
  • Garlic Powderr, to your taste
  • Celery St, to your taste
  • Liquid Smoke (optional), to your taste
  • Chicen broth -- 1-2-3 boxes (all the ingredients depend on the number you cook for, what you plan to freeze (yes, it freezes well), and how much you'll eat!)
  • Carrot juice (this adds some sweetness, and is optional, but is what I think makes mine really taste good!)
  1. After you have soaked your beans over night, tak a large or stock pot, and put in your chicken broth.
  2. Bring that to a boil
  3. Add in the carrots, bell peppers, drained / rinsed white beans, ham meat, carrots, minced or diced onions, celery... and bring this to a full boil
  4. Let this go for 30-45 minutes until the beans are the softness you deisre
  5. Add in the carrot juice if you're using it, and bring it back to a boil
  6. Add in the petite diced tomatoes if you have chosen to use them
  7. Bring this back to a full boil in a stock pot, then reduce to low... if it's a crock pot situation, I think just bring it back to a boil, and then transfer and set the heat to your time frame.

I hope I laid that out okay! It's so easy, and, I think, pretty healthy. We are eating this today with some cornbread. Might even be followed by a NAP!
 
Oh yeah.... that sounds soooo good, Jill! And you know me and cooking...I even have liquid smoke on hand! Yum! thanks for sharing!!!

Liz N.
 
Liz, we think it turned out good! I swear, it's a good thing i have large stock pots because my ingredients always accumulate to more than I had imagined. I froze a lot of it, and have frozen other bean soups and chili's before and it worked out well. I think this is one that's easy to customize to your own / your family's taste. Just soak those white beans overnight (in a LARGE bowl, either a 16oz or 32oz bag, depending on your plans), and then spend some time dicing / chopping your choice of veggies -- the more the better I imagine! I really thing the carrot juice bottle (32oz here, but I put away 1/2 of the pot in the freezer) sets it off. I like the natural sweetness of the carrot juice with the saltiness of the ham and chicken broth.

For the veggies, I really have bought into the rumors that frozen / canned / dried "happens" long before "fresh" can be bought in the stores. I absolutely could be wrong, but for most of our meals, I fall back on frozen veggies and dried / minced onions (I buy them in bulk from Walmart online at a big savings)... SO for my pot of soup, it was 1 16oz bag of frozen carrots (I'd have used 2 if I had another -- I did freeze half of it), a full "bunch" of rinsed celery, probably 1/3 - 1/2 cup of dried / minced onions, (because they're easier to dice) 4 fresh green peppers, .................. you are probably getting this picture!!! I just fall back on frozen veggies and dried / minced onions but part of that is because I think they are "set" much sooner than what you can by "fresh" in the store. I've read that it's quite some time between harvest and store shelf for veggies, but that if they are frozen, canned, or dried, (now a-days), it's a very quick process for the food to be preserved.

I'm looking forward to this soup the next few days...
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With this one, I didn't use a packet of "S.I." -- which is what my mom and I say when talking recipes (I only walk in her shadow -- she's an amazing chef!). Secret Ingredient. And that equals some Splenda (yellow packet artifical ssweetener. I put it in most everything, eespeciallyanything with tomatoes. Mom and I both hide the packets at the bottom of the trash or in pockets because if Dad or H saw the evidence, they'd claim it tasted "too sweet". I think it really cuts the acid in tomato recipes for sure, but it goes good with so much IMO... And adds no calories and is said to be healthy. Honestly, I don't even eat a salad without it but in this soup, if you use bottled or canned carrot juice, I don't think you'd want to add any "S.I."

It was awesome for lunch with some corn bread mix (from the store) that I mixed per the package but then added maybe 1/2 cup of drained corn and 1 cup of sharp cheddar cheese on top -- into an 8 x 8 Pam (or other cooking) Spray-ed dish and in the oven at 400 degrees for maybe 25 minutes. Seriously YUM and the only "bad" was the ham and the cheese as far as I am aware.

This soup freezes well in a firm container (I wouldn't try a freezer bag).
 
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