16 Bean and Ham Soup

This is the basic recipe off the back of a bag of dried 16 bean soup mix, with some tweaks I've made to it that I think make it super yummy.  This recipe takes a little commitment and planning ahead.  Its so worth if you have the time....perhaps a yucky, drizzly, cold Sunday when you have three or fours at home before dinnertime.

I imagine you could make this in the crockpot as well, if you have one big enough to hold your ham bone. As I re-read this sentence, its really making me giggle.

A couple quick notes.  We love saving the ham bone when we buy a spiral ham for Thanksgiving and again at Christmas.  Whatever isn't eaten during those holidays gets shoved in a Ziplock bag and frozen until we're ready for this soup.  If you don't happen to have a leftover bone-in ham, you can buy cooked ham hocks at just about any grocery (a couple will do), and then just buy a boneless ham and cube it up.

I didn't plan on doing a recipe post about this until after I had the pot cooking, so I didn't do step by step photos.   Here is a photo of what the bean packaging looks like.  Just go down your aisle that has dried beans and you'll see something similar. 

The beans are gorgeous and look like this.  And best of all, there's no question you'll be meeting your fiber dietary requirements for a few days.

16 Bean and Ham Soup

You will need:

very large stockpot

• leftover bone in ham (with plenty of ham left on it) OR ham hocks with additional boneless cubes of ham (at least 3 or 4 cups)
• bag of dried beans (as above)
• 2 TBSP olive oil
• 1 lb of carrots, cut up
• 3 stalks of celery, chopped
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 3-4 cloves of fresh garlic, minced
• 8 cups of water
• box of diced tomatoes (*see note at the bottom of this post)
• fresh greens (I used collards Andrew picked from the garden today, but you could use chopped up kale, spinach, etc.)  (Also, this is optional... I just think it adds a nice flavor and texture to the soup, and more nutrition!)
• salt/pepper to taste

What to do:

First! 

The night before (or very early the morning you want to make this soup) dump the dried beans into a large bowl and completely cover them with water. They need to soak at least 8 hours, and longer than that is fine.   They will expand so make sure you use a large enough bowl.  The bag of beans will likely come with a 'flavor packet'.   Throw it away.  You don't need it, and who the heck knows what's in there anyway.   Trust  me, using your ham bones will give it plenty of great smoky flavor from a much more natural source.

Time to make the soup!

Heat the olive oil in bottom of stock pot and saute onion, garlic and celery until tender.  While you're doing that, drain the beans from their soaking water and rinse them off.  Add 8 cups of clean water to your stockpot, and all of the beans.  Submerge your ham bone (heh heh), or ham hocks, and add all of your cubed ham.  Add your tomatoes, carrots, and greens.   Salt and pepper.  Simmer for at least 3 hours.  When its close to meal time, remove the ham bone and toss.

Okay then.  My Grandpa Unklesbay was a bean soup lover, and to him, no bowl of beans was ever complete without a sprinkle of sugar on top.  Yep, you read that right - sugar.  If you like to mix your savory with your sweet, give it a try.  I happen to like it too.  But if you like to keep your savory with your savory, add a few dashes of Tabasco to your bowl.  That's how Andrew likes his.

This makes a huge amount of soup.   Now, my kids won't touch this with a ten foot pole.  So we usually eat it for a couple of days, and freeze the rest for another time.

Great served with cornbread, if you're so inclined.  Its super delicious, you won't be disappointed.  And, you won't have to cook again for a couple of days!

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*I recently read a scary article about canned tomatoes, so I'm now trying to buy them in a box, like these.  You can find these right next to all the jarred tomato sauce, and they sell them this way at Trader Joe's as well.

Happy cooking!