Ham and Bean Soup

I love ham and beans but the old version of my recipe did not settle with my body anymore. Ham can make me sick and cause serious inflammation so I found using uncured ham is a much better choice if your trying to eat naturally. If your lucky you can find uncured ham shank in good meat markets and organic stores. The bone adds flavor to the soup but the soup is still good without the bone so if you can’t find an uncured ham shank, just use uncured ham.

I also like the small white navy beans, you can really use really any type of dried bean for this recipe, but I prefer the tender, mild taste of navy beans. Beans are grown underneath the soil and you don’t want to be eating all of the pesticides that soaks into the earth which is why I get organic beans if possible.

1 pound dry beans soaked overnight in water. Drained and rinsed
1 large onion chopped
3 stalks celery chopped
2 carrots grated
1 bell pepper chopped
1 fresh jalapeno chopped
2 tablespoons of fresh rosemary, thyme, sage chopped fine
3 cloves of garlic chopped fine
6 cups chicken stock or veggie stock
1 cup of dry white wine
1 large uncured ham hock or 1/2 pound of uncured ham chopped
2 tablespoons of tomato paste
3 tablespoons of olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
Fresh chopped parsley and a squeeze of lemon juice

In a large stock pot add your oil to a hot pan. Add all of your veggies and cook for 15 minutes. Add your garlic, fresh herbs, tomato paste, and cook 5 more minutes. Take your rinsed beans, stock, and ham hock and cook on a medium heat for two hours. After two hours take out your ham hock and let cool enough so that you can handle taking the meat off the bone. Return the meat to the pan of beans and taste the beans to see how tender they are. It normally takes between 2 to three hours for the beans to get tender. Once tender add your salt and pepper to taste. I cut the heat off the soup once the beans are just tender. I don’t like over cooking my soups. I cook them just until everything is tender. I like to top the soup with fresh chopped parsley and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice once I plate the soup.