Ham & Bean Soup

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas! I had the pleasure of a partly cloudy, reasonably warm holiday filled with delightful gifts and pleasant people at work. (Hotels never close!)

Johnny received a ham as a Christmas gift from his company; it weighed eight and a half pounds! That's a lot of ham for only two people! I cooked it last week and we've been eating ham sandwiches every day since. I made a breakfast strata with some of it (which we are still nibbling on), and today I made a delicious ham and bean soup. It's hearty, tasty, and good for you! Be warned, you'll need a huge pot to cook it in- it makes a very large quantity. We're planning to eat some for lunch throughout the week and freeze the rest.

Ham & Bean Soup
From allrecipes

• 1 (20 ounce) package 15 bean mixture, soaked overnight
• 1 ham bone
• 2 1/2 cups cubed ham
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 3 stalks celery, chopped
• 5 large carrots, chopped
• 1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes, with liquid
• 1 (12 fluid ounce) can low-sodium vegetable juice
• 3 cups vegetable broth
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 3 bay leaves
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon dried parsley
• 3 tablespoons lemon juice
• 7 cups low fat, low sodium chicken broth
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt.
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1. Place the soaked beans into a large pot and fill with enough water to cover by about 1 inch. Bring to a boil, then simmer over low for 30 minutes. Drain. Add the ham bone, ham, onion, celery, carrots, tomatoes, vegetable juice, and vegetable broth. Season with Worcestershire sauce, Dijon mustard, chili powder, bay leaves, pepper, parsley and lemon juice. Pour in enough of the chicken broth to cover the ingredients.
2. Simmer over low heat, stirring occasionally, for about 8 hours. Add more chicken broth as needed throughout the day. Remove the ham bone and season with salt if needed. Continue to simmer for a couple more hours. Remove bay leaves before serving.