Easy Ham and Bean Soup
I'd never have thought that Sofia would say about this bean soup that "... it's the best soup of my life!" And she's a rather fussy child when it comes to food, with a lot of talk about why to eat vegetables and why wholemeal bread and not white, why not sweets etc. So if you have a craving for a good ham bean soup and easy to prepare, I highly recommend this recipe. I improvised after the potato soup recipe, with borscht/lemon, tarragon and thyme, definitelly.
When you start the soup, be sure you've soaked the beans a few hours before, even better, overnight. I pour about 4 glasses of cold water to 1 kg of beans.
If you have the kind of beans that boil quickly, you can skip this step.
After the beans have soaked, drain the water, pour clean water and bring to the boil.
The water should cover the beans well.
When the beans come to the boil, cook for 5 minutes, then drain the water and discard.
Pour clean water again, preferably hot, and bring to a boil.
When they come to the boil once more, drain and throw the water. It would be good to repeat this procedure 2-3 times so that you avoid having any consuming beans problems :)
Finally, pour enough water to cover the beans well, add 1 onion, 2-3 bay leaves, 1-2 tablespoons of oil.
When it comes to the boil, make a low heat and cook until beans are completely done.
While the beans are cooking, prepare the rest of the ingredients. Here I have the vegetables and some smoked, not fatty, ribs.
The tomato paste and the greens - fresh or dried.
I diced all the vegetables - carrot, onion, pepper and celery.
I also had some bone-in smoked pork chops. I cut the meat into small pieces and left a bit of meat on the bones.
In a pan, pour a little oil, add in the carrots and onions, cook for 5 minutes.
Mix in the celery and pepper.
Also put tomato paste.
Add in the smoked meat / chops.
Stir well and cook for 5 minutes.
Transfer this meat and vegetable mixture to a large 5 liter pot.
Pour over about 2 liters of water.
Turn on the heat under the pot and simmer for 30-40 minutes.
After this time, add the boiled beans to the pan, together with the juice / water.
Pour in the sour borscht, adjust to taste.
Add salt, also to taste.
Mix the soup well and let simmer for another 10 minutes.
Finally, sprinkle with chopped parsley.
Adjust the taste of the soup with tarragon and thyme. I put 1 teaspoon of each (I had dry).
Stir well, cover with a lid and turn off the heat.
Let the soup infuse properly, 20-30 minutes before serving.
Serve with some red onions and hot peppers, if you like. A spoonful of sour cream won't do any harm, either :)
Enjoy!
