My Kitchen Clatter

Real Food - Real Life

Ham Bone and Bean Soup

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If you were to ask me, I would tell you that the best part about a ham is the bone. Our local meat market stopped carrying bone-in hams a couple of years ago, so I was forced to find a new meat market. I can’t even comprehend how they “make” hams without the bones. Seems a little funny to me.

But anyway, that ham bone is great because it make an awesome soup. I sometimes think of it as free food – take something that you might have thrown away, add a couple cheap veggies, and you end up with a  very healthy and easy soup.

To make traditional ham bone soup, you simmer it the ham bone in a pot of water all day long and eventually you end up with a great stock for a bean soup. The little bits of meat loosen up while it’s simmering and it makes the perfect soup for a cold winter day.

This year, I decided there was no need to simmer all day long. Save energy, save time, all that good stuff. So, I modified my ham bone and bean soup recipe for the pressure cooker. Perfect!

The only trick to this recipe is a little thinking ahead on the beans. The night (or morning) before you make the soup, take a couple cups of beans and cover them with 2-3 inches of cold water in a big pot. 8-12 hours later, drain the beans and you are ready for the soup. I usually soak extra beans, drain them and freeze them in two cup portions – ready to go in a recipe that calls for soaked beans and no planning required. If you are in a time crunch, you can also do a quick soak of your beans.

You can make this recipe with any bean you like. I love it with cannellini, but a bag of mixed beans (sometimes called a 15-bean soup mix) is great also. Have fun with it!

Here’s the recipe. Hope you enjoy.

Ham Bone & Bean Soup
Recipe Type: Soup
Author: Andrea
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 8-10
Don’t throw away that ham bone! Here’s my favorite recipe for a leftover ham bone. Remember to pre-soak your beans. This is made in a pressure cooker, but could be easily modified for stovetop. Also, there should be no need to add salt to this recipe because of the ham bone.
Ingredients
  • 1 cooked ham bone, with meat left on
  • 1 large onion, chopped
  • 1 T olive oil
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 16 ounces of beans, soaked – any kind will do, but cannellini or mixed soup beans are a good start
  • 2 cups of chopped carrots
  • 2 cups of chopped celery
  • 1 teaspoon dried thyme
  • 1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
Instructions
  1. Heat the olive oil in a 6 quart or larger pressure cooker, sauté the onion until translucent – not brown. Add the ham bone, bay leaf and 8 cups of water. Lock lid and bring cooker to high pressure for 25 minutes.
  2. Quick release pressure and add remaining ingredients. This is a big soup – do not fill cooker past the 2/3 line. Lock lid and return cooker to high pressure for 6-12 minutes, depending on your bean. Smaller beans like black beans will be 6 minutes, larger beans like cannellini will be 10-12 minutes.
  3. Release pressure naturally and remove lid.
  4. Remove ham bone. While ham bone is cooling, keep soup at a simmer. If you like a creamier soup, you can use a spoon to mush some of the beans up in it.
  5. When the bone is cool enough to handle, tear off the bits of ham still attached and return the ham to the soup.
  6. Serve with a crusty bread and enjoy!

 

 

Pumpkin Chili

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Sugar Pumpkin

I originally found this recipe for pumpkin chili when I was looking for recipes to share for a pumpkin class. The original recipe came from Thug Kitchen and was pretty fabulous. I’ve upped the tomatoes and vegetables and adjusted it a little to make it my own, which is what you should do with any good chili recipe.

To make your own pumpkin puree, find yourself a sugar pumpkin. Don’t use a regular carving pumpkin – they won’t taste as sweet and you’ll be wasting your time. Wash the pumpkin, cut it in half, and remove the seeds and strings. To cook the pumpkin, you can either roast the halves, cut side down, in a roasting pan with a cup of water. It’ll take about 30-40 minutes at 400 degrees. Alternatively, you can pressure cook the halves for about 6 minutes on high pressure – remember to 1/2 a cup of water or your cooker’s minimum liquid amount. The pumpkin is done with you can easily stick a fork in through the skin. Once the pumpkin is cooked, let it cool, scrape out the flesh and puree it in your blender or food processor until smooth.

These dried beans were harvested from our garden

These dried beans were harvested from our garden

You can use any type of beans in this recipe. The recipe is written for using canned beans or soaked dried beans. If you use dried beans, you have the option for cooking them before adding them to the soup or pressure cooking them as part of the soup. Cooking them before adding, let’s you mix and match your beans in the soup. Save the cooking liquid for the beans and use it in the soup instead of broth or water. I’ve used combinations of black, cannellini, and kidney beans.

If you choose to pressure cook the beans with the soup, either use one type of bean, or pick beans that are about the same size so they cook the at the same rate. Black beans can cook as quickly as 3 minutes under pressure, but cannellini or kidney can take 6 minutes. Adjust the pressure cooking time to the beans that you are using.

Pumpkin Chili
Author: Andrea
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 8
This is a great fall recipe. It uses pureed pumpkin, tomatoes, beans, and comes together quickly.
Ingredients
  • 2 T olive oil
  • 1 medium onion, chopped finely – about a cup
  • 1 cup of chopped carrots, about 2-3 carrots
  • 1 cup of chopped sweet pepper
  • 1 1/2 T chili powder
  • 1 t ground cumin
  • 4 cloves of garlic, chopped
  • 1 jalapeno, chopped
  • 2 T Braggs Amino Acids or soy sauce
  • 1, 28 oz jars of crushed tomatoes
  • 2 cups of pumpkin puree
  • 4 cups (or 2, 15 ounce cans of beans) – black, cannellini, or whatever you like (if you are dried beans, instead of canned), see special note in instructions for pressure cooked method
  • 4 cups of bean broth, vegetable stock or water
Instructions
  1. Heat the olive oil in a large stockpot over medium heat. Sauté the onion, carrots, and peppers until soft – it’s okay if they brown a little – about 5 minutes.
  2. Add chili powder, cumin, garlic, jalapeno, and amino acids. Sauté for 30 seconds.
  3. Add tomatoes, pumpkin, broth and beans and bring to a simmer. Allow to simmer on the stove for about 30 minutes before serving.
  4. * pressure cooker method – use soaked, dried beans. In step three, add remaining ingredients and pressure cook on high for 6 minutes for a medium size bean (see above notes for more info on cooking times). Done.