Monday Morsel from Mom - Bean Soup

Last weekend, The Hubs & I traveled to the DFW area with some friends to go to the Cotton Bowl. We'll skip talking about the game. Ugh!

As we headed home on Sunday, it started to snow...HARD! It was so crazy! It snowed all the way from south Fort Worth to Hillsboro. Along the way, we made a pit stop at my parents house where my mom had just finished making a fresh pot of bean soup and some homemade cornbread. Lucky for me, she dished some of both into to-go containers for us to take home. (YEAH for not having to make dinner after traveling all weekend).

The soup was delicious and perfect for the cold weather! I asked her to share the recipe so that I could pass it along to you all.



Ingredients:

* 1 pkg 15-bean soup mix (found with the dried beans)
* 10 cups water
* 1 meaty left-over ham bone or 1 lb ham (or more) cut in pieces
* 1 large onion, chopped
* 2 cloves garlic, minced
* 1/2 to 3/4 t. salt
* 1 16 oz can diced tomatoes
* 1 10 oz can original Ro-Tel tomatoes with green chilis
* 1 4 oz can chopped green chilis

Directions:

1. Wash beans. Put in dutch oven & cover with water 2 inches above beans; soak overnight.

2. Drain beans; add water and next 4 ingredients. Cover & bring to boil; reduce heat & simmer 1 1/2 hours or until beans are tender.

3. Add remaining ingredients & simmer about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

4. Adjust the seasonings. It may need more salt - depends on how salty your ham is.

5. Serve with warm cornbread.


Mom's Tid-Bits:

* I actually save some of the ham back & add it with the final ingredients. Boiling the meat leeches the flavor, so adding part of it at the end gives you some bits with full flavor.

* If you don't have a bone, buy a ham steak with the little round bone. If using the ham steak, be sure to use the bone & don't remove the fat.

* This is actually better made the day before. It also freezes well.

* If you want to make your own bean mix- combine & divide into 2 cups pkgs:

1 lb barley pearls
1 lb black beans
1 lb red kidney beans
1 lb pinto beans
1 lb navy beans
1 lb Great Northern beans
1 lb dried lentils
1 lb split peas
1 lb dried black-eyed pea