Recipe: Navy Bean and Ham Soup

Well, Christmas is now over.

Time to slowly take down all the holiday decorations and clean up all the shredded wrapping paper from the living room.  Which brings me to my one of my first projects on my to-do list- turning our unfinished lower level into a play room. Between recent birthdays and Christmas, I'm drowning in toys, toys and more toys. It's time to make a place for the girls to play and have fun without me and Hubby worrying about tripping over everything. But that project and post is for another day.

Today, I want to share my great-grandmothers navy bean and ham soup. This soup is perfect for leftover holiday ham, or if you are like me, and purchased a ham during after holiday sales.

This soup freezes well, so its great to make in a big batch.

 Easy protein packed lunch idea anyone?

This recipe can be altered a little bit, depending on how much ham you have.

I used 2 lbs of dried navy beans

Roughly a 1 1/2 lbs cooked ham (diced)

1 onion (diced)

3 carrots (diced)

3 celery stalks (diced)

garlic powder - to taste

seasoning salt- to taste

dash of cayenne pepper

dash of pepper

1/4 tsp.baking soda

Soak beans over night. In morning, boil about 15 minutes.

Add 1/4 tsp baking soda. Boil about 2-3 minutes more. Drain and rinse.

Cover beans with water. Add ham (and ham bone if you still have it). Also add chopped carrots, onion and celery.

Season to taste. Simmer for 2 hours and remove ham bone before serving.

Enjoy!


Happy Cooking!