Nov 01 2014
We woke up this am with snow covered grass and roof tops! That’s about two weeks early for this area. It was cold today 39 deg. but we did have some sun this afternoon.
My wife gets her hair done every Saturday and I planned to make some ham and bean soup. I had some leftover ham and cornbread from yesterday’s meal to use. I also had some celery and carrots to use up; I always have garlic and onions on hand.
The ham I had was probably about ¼ pound and with a cup of beans and some veggies you can feed 4 to 6 people pretty cheap. I started making the soup a little after lunch. I got it all together and on simmer until supper time and the grandson stopped in. He had come to neighbors to play and they were not home so he hung out with me for the afternoon and ate some lunch.
My wife got home and she played some scrabble with the grandson. His Mom came to pick him up; she said she couldn’t eat since she had a stomach ache. The grandson said he would try my bean soup and he liked it and had seconds and some of the cornbread. After he ate they went home.
I fixed myself some of the soup with chopped raw onions and hot sauce added, and a little dried chives on top for looks. I thought it was pretty good bean soup along with some buttered cornbread it hit the spot!
I told the wife I didn’t have much but the bean soup and she could go out to get something. She said she was too tired and would try the bean soup since she did want the cornbread. She took a bite and said boy that’s good! I’ll be darned after 30 plus years cooking for her I finally made some bean soup that she liked!
I think one reason she liked it was the yellow eyed beans, they are pretty mild tasting and not as starchy as most beans. I had just thrown the soup together without a recipe. I figured if both she and the grandson liked it I better write the recipe down while I can remember it.
I have never seen the yellow eyed beans around here at the groceries and bought these from Amazon. The only bean I think might be a good substitute is white cannellini beans.
Ingredients
Ham
Smokin Don
recipe:
Yellow eyed beans and ham
1 cup yellow eyed beans, soaked overnight
1 piece of ham, I used half a slice of center cut with bone in
¾ quart good chicken broth
2 to 3 celery ribs diced
2 carrots diced
1 med. onion diced
2 to 3 green onions sliced
1 clove garlic mashed and diced
3 small potatoes or 1 med. diced ½ inch
1 Tbs. bacon grease
A little olive oil
1 heaping Tbs. flour
Fresh ground pepper to taste
Salt to taste
1 good teaspoon Cajun seasoning or to taste
2 bay leaves
1 Tbs dried parsley
Water if needed
CI Dutch oven or large pot to cook in
I had the bone and about 1 ½ cups of diced ham from a large center cut slice. I cut the bone and the fatty meat out of it then diced the rest about ½ inch. I heated the bacon grease in my cast iron chicken friar on med. high and browned the bone and meat about 3 minutes on each side then removed it from the pot.
Add the celery, carrots, onion, green onion and garlic to the pot and turn the heat to med. Add a little oil if needed. Sauté about 5 minutes stirring some. Add in some fresh ground pepper and the Cajun seasoning, stir in to mix.
Add in the heaping Tbs. of flour and stir it in, when it starts to stick to the pot add in a little chicken broth and stir to deglaze the pot. Add in the rest of the chicken broth and turn the heat to med. high.
Add the browned bone and meat, the diced ham, diced potatoes and the bay leaves. Rinse the soaked beans and add them to the pot. Bring to a boil and then turn down to a simmer. Let simmer about a half hour and the cover and simmer on low, 3 to 4 hours or until the beans are soft. Check and stir about every half hour and add water if needed. Add in the parsley about an hour before serving. Great served with some chopped fresh onion and hot sauce at the table. You need some good cornbread with this too.
Note: I had about a Tbs. of my smoked hickory bacon salt I added to it. If you don’t have that just salt to taste. Yellow eyed beans are on the mild side and a good substitute would be white cannellini beans.
