
This week I chose to try a ham and bean soup. I had saved the ham leg bone from our Christmas ham and had it in the freezer. The base for a lot of my soups starts the same. I chop up a bunch of onion, carrots and celery and cook until softened, then start branching out on my flavors from there. Here is the recipe that I ended up with for this soup and it was absolutely DELICIOUS! One of my favorites yet and even the kids gobbled it up quickly and asked for more.
Ingredients:
- 1 large yellow onion, chopped
- 1 bunch of organic celery, chopped
- 2-3 cups of organic carrots, chopped
- 64 oz of organic chicken broth
- salt and pepper to taste
- 2 Tbsp organic minced garlic
- rosemary and thyme infused olive oil
- 1 ham bone (optional for flavor)
- 2-3 cups organic spinach leaves, chopped
- 1 bottle angry orchard crisp apple gluten free hard cider
- 2 – 15 oz cans of organic navy beans
- 2 – 15 oz cans of organic cannelini beans
- 2 packages of aidells natural chicken and apple smoked sausage (browned and chopped)
How to:
- Add chopped onion, celery and carrots into a large stock pot with some rosemary & thyme olive oil (or oil of your choice) and cook on high until they begin to soften
- Add in ham bone if you have one
- Pour in the chicken broth and turn heat down to a low simmer
- Add in the hard cider to flavor your broth (this is a delicious flavoring), salt, pepper and garlic
- in a separate pan, brown the chopped chicken and apple sausages until thoroughly cooked
- add the sausage into the soup
- allow to simmer for 30 min – a few hours (I personally think the earlier in the day you make them the better the flavor)
- add spinach
- about 15 minutes before serving, add in the beans. I like to add them at the end so they are not too mushy, but still have a chance to get warm
- remove the ham bone and discard
- pour into bowls and top with some fresh grated Parmesan cheese (if you can do dairy)
- ENJOY!