Ham and Red Bean Soup

Why not put your ham bone to work for you?  This soup gets loads of flavor from cooking dried beans with a well trimmed ham bone. Thrifty and delicious, it is a good use for leftover ham, and chopped leftover hardboiled eggs are a terrific garnish. Great with red beans, equally as good with black beans – and both do well with the ‘quick soak’ method for dried beans when it’s not practical to soak them in water over night.

Quick Soak Method for dried beans:

Pick over and rinse one pound dried red beans. Put in a soup kettle, cover with 4 cups of water and bring to a rapid boil. Turn off the heat, cover the pot tightly and completely and allow to sit for 1 hour. When this soaking is complete, drain the beans and add back into the soup kettle with the ham bone.

Ham and Red Bean Soup Recipe Ingredients: (makes 8 servings)

• 1 pound pre-soaked dried red (or black) beans
• 1 ham bone
• 7 cups water
• 2 cups diced onion
• 1 cup diced celery (include trimmed leafy tops if you’ve got them!)
• 1/4 cup minced parsley
• 3 large cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 2 + teaspoons kosher salt
• Freshly grated black pepper
• 3 ounces sherry (optional)
• 1 cup diced ham plus some for garnish
•  Chopped hard boiled egg for garnish (optional)

Directions:

Add 7 cups of water to the beans and ham bone, along with the bay leaves, garlic, and several grinds of black pepper. Cover, bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer. Simmer for 1 1/2 hours, still covered.

After 1 1/2 hours, add the onion, celery, parlsey and thyme. Stir together and simmer, covered, for 2 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally. If the beans are  tender to the bite at this point, they are done.

When the beans are finished, remove the ham bone and bay leaf and add the sherry. Simmer, uncovered for a few minutes, then remove from the heat and cool slightly. With an immersion blender, whiz the soup down to a fairly smooth consistency. If you do not have an immersion blender, you can also process the soup in batches in a food processor.

Add the diced ham, stir and taste for salt and pepper.*  Depending on how salty your ham bone was, you may have to add a teaspoon or more salt (I use Kosher salt, table salt will differ). Ladle into bowls, sprinkle with chopped hard boiled egg and diced ham. Enjoy!

* If the soup is too thick for your liking, add water 1/4 cup at a time and stir thoroughly over low heat. If the soup is too thin (it will thicken a lot when cooled) simmer on low, stirring often until thickened as you like it.