When I was a teenager I was a candy striper at a local hospital. Those of you that know me, will find that utterly unbelievable, because I do not do blood. Not at all. When my two oldest daughters had their wisdom teeth removed, I remember standing in the doorway of their bedroom, queasy, while my youngest daughter (who was probably about 8 or 9 at the time), went in and changed their gauze. So, yeah, me in a hospital, voluntarily, is pretty unbelievable. What is very believable, however, is that I only worked on Thursdays, and that was because that was the day they had ham and bean soup in the cafeteria.
So, you might say that I have been a connoisseur of ham and bean soup practically all my life. Up to now, my favorite has always been with great northern beans, I know some prefer navy, but for me, it’s great northern. Until now. As part of my “year of beans with Rancho Gordo” I received their yellow eye beans. Good bye great northern, hello yellow eye!
These were so good. Perfectly creamy and their flavor complemented the ham wonderfully. My ham and beans is pretty basic. I soak the beans overnight in my slow cooker. In the morning, I had a meaty ham bone, a couple stalks of celery sliced, 3 carrots sliced, one chopped onion, a bay leaf, a couple sprigs of fresh thyme, a few garlic cloves and about 6-8 cups of chicken stock (depending on how much of the water the beans soaked up). Cook all day. Before serving, remove the hambone and shred the cooked meat and put it back with the beans. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve with hot sauce or a hot chili pepper vinegar.
This will be my entry for Souper Sundays (Soup, Salad, or Sammie) hosted by Deb at Kahakai Kitchen.
Deb in Hawaii says
Bean soups are my very favorite! This looks perfectly homey and delicious. Thanks for sharing it with Souper Sundays this week. 😉
grace says
i'll go to great lengths to eat some ham and bean soup too! it's the perfect soup to eat in a bread bowl.
Chris says
It's almost hard to mess up anything with ham bone and beans, isn't it? This looks great, Pam.
One of these days you all have to get up to the blogger get together. 🙂
a good yarn says
Oh yeah! That's the way to do it. I just use canellini beans as we don't get those fancy ones here. Not that I've seen anyway.
darlin says
Do you use the whole bag of beans?
Thanks again!
darlin says
This sounds wonderful, I'm going to keep an eye out for these beans and give them a try. Thanks for sharing this recipe!
shabby girl says
That soup sounds SO GOOD right now! Don't think I've ever seen that kind of bean before. Going to save your recipe!
Wearinbeads says
That is a funny story. Those look like bleached-out black-eyed peas.
Mari @ Once Upon a Plate says
Pam, you crack me up!
Oh I love Rancho Gordo Beans, and you've done them proud. I'm so in the mood for a bowl right now...
Marjie says
Funny how we just love some soups for life, isn't it?
And I don't do blood, either. I have no idea where my nurse daughter came from.
Joanne says
I think I just got these with the year of beans this year and was wondering what to do with them! A soup sounds perfect.
Amy says
This is similar to a split pea soup I make. Delicious! And also, I read that first line as candy stripper. Which made me laugh. I need to start drinking coffee.