I agree with Jana, though I've been a habitual non-poster myself. So I thought I'd post my favorite fall/winter soup. Kurt and I'll be having it for dinner tonight. The real perk is that you can get everything set the night before and throw it in the crockpot in the morning before leaving for the day.
Bean Soup
Large Bottle or 3-4 cans Northern Beans
1 can diced tomatoes
~1/2 cup chopped carrots
~1/2 cup chopped celery
medium onion chopped
Smoked Ham Hock (this should be especially easy for Jana to find! I miss the good pork selections in the south)
Small package cubed ham -optional (This is the kind that come in the vaccuum sealed bags. You can use leftover ham instead.)
1 good squeeze ketchup
Place all ingredients in crockpot and cook all day. Only needs a couple hours so if I'm home I'll just throw it together in the early afternoon. Before serving, remove meat from ham hock. This step grosses out Kurt since it requires cutting away the fat from the ham hock and you really don't get a ton of meat but it is so, so good. You can skip this step if you've included the cubed or leftover ham. Even if you aren't going to trim the meat I strongly recommend using the ham hock as the bone and the meat add a lot of flavor to the soup. A ham hock is relatively cheap and will freeze basically forever.
I serve this with a loaf of crusty bread for a complete meal. Mmmmh, it's making my mouth water. I better get my grocery list together so I can get this a-cooking.
4 comments:
That sounds so yummy and I am all about using the crock pot. I'd really like to get a good recipe book with only crock pot recipes in it. I bet this bean soup would be really good served in a bread bowl. My friend used to make bread bowls to serve chili in. I don't know if regular bread would work. Maybe if I think about it I'll check on the internet to see if I can find a recipe for bread bowls. Thanks for sharing Heather.
Ok, this is stupid, but I had to ask Jason what ham hock was! I really am not much of a cook. Haha. It does sound like a tasty recipe, and very healthy, which is always a bonus. Thanks for sharing!
We tried it for Sunday dinner, but Dad forgot to add the ketchup. You all know how fond of ketchup Jim is, so he wouldn't eat it, but Dad and I liked it.
Aw, Jimmy. He could have just added it to his own bowl. Then he could have equal parts ketchup and soup if he liked.
My parents always leave the ketchup out until the end since we all like it different ways. My dad puts a couple big spoonfuls of apple cider vinegar in. So whatever floats your boat, really.
Glad you enjoyed it!
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