Heritage Ham and Bean Soup

I'm entering this soup into the City of Ames Employee Chili/Soup Cookoff tomorrow--wish me luck! (Last year I won healthiest soup with this lentil soup recipe.)

It is one of our families' very favorite soups--if you like ham and beans and you like soup that gets thicker and better when you freeze it, this soup is for you. Enjoy! 

Heritage Ham and Bean Soup

(also known as 5 Bean French Market Soup)

Anastasia Tuckness

From my Great Grandma Katherine Tymes

15-20 servings

6 hours, mostly unattended

2 1/2 cups (16-20 oz) dried mixed beans

3 quarts water

1 tsp salt

1 bay leaf

¼ t dried basil

1 ham hock (3/4 lb)

28 oz can whole tomatoes, broken up

2 medium onions, chopped

6 stalks celery, diced

2-4 cloves garlic, minced

1 lb smoked sausage ring, sliced thinly

½ c fresh chopped parsley, or 1 T dried

½ c red wine, or ¼ c red wine vinegar

1.     Soak the beans in twice the water needed to cover them overnight.  Drain them.

2.     In a large soup pot, combine water, beans, salt, bay leaf, basil, and ham hock.  Simmer 2 ½-3 hours, adjusting the heat and the lid to keep it at a slow simmer (bubbles just barely break surface of soup), and stirring often enough to keep it from sticking (at least every half hour, more if the pan is not heavy-bottomed).

3.     Add tomatoes, onions, celery, and garlic.  Simmer 1 ½ hours, uncovered, stirring to keep from sticking.

4.     Remove the ham hock to a cutting board.  Add sausage to pot. Once the ham hock has cooled, cut off all the meat and add it back to the pot.  Simmer 45 more minutes.

5.     Add parsley and red wine.  Enjoy!

Notes: 

·      +This is a good recipe to start in the morning on a day when you’ll be cooking other things or working around the house, and can just walk by it frequently to check on it.

   +You can use ½ cup each of 5 different dried beans; that's what my mom does. I like to buy the 20 oz bag of mixed beans from Fareway because you get nice big ones and little tiny ones that melt into the soup.

·      +This soup freezes really well and tastes better the day after you make it.

·      +You can purchase a ham hock at Fareway’s meat counter (I get a 1 ½ lb shank cut in half, then use the other half for pea soup—you can freeze the shank for a while) or use a leftover ham bone.  

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Granola / Energy Bars

I fell in love with these bars the first time I made them! I'd been looking for a granola bar that had a little more chew to it, not simply nuts held together with honey and egg white. Well, this is it. It makes a lot and is easily varied, and they hold together well for transporting, and they freeze well too.  Hope you enjoy them, and let me know what variations you particularly like!

Energy Bars

Anastasia Tuckness

based on Granola Bars from Blessedendurance.com (photo at this site)

2 cups regular oats, not instant
½ cup white flour
½ cup wheat flour

2-4 T brown sugar
½ cup wheat germ

½ cup walnuts, sunflower seeds or almonds

½ cup chocolate chips

½ cup raisins or other dried fruit
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp salt

2 bananas, mashed OR 1 cup applesauce

½ cup peanut butter
1 egg, beaten
½ cup vegetable oil
½ cup honey
2 tsp vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9 x 13 dish.
2. Combine all dry ingredients (oats through salt) in a large bowl. (The types and amounts of nuts and fruit are quite flexible.)

3. In a medium bowl, mash the banana with the fork. Beat in the egg and peanut butter. Pour in the oil, honey, and vanilla and stir.

4. Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour in the wet. Stir well.
5. Spread into the pan.
6. Bake for about 22-25 minutes or until the edges begin to brown. Cool slightly, then cut into bars. Store them in the fridge or wrap them individually and freeze them for convenient snacking.