Recipe Challenge - Recipes & Reviews

Bean & Ham Soup

1 lb great northern beans (let soak all night in water and rinse & drain)
2 quarts of water (plus 1 1/2 cups during last hour of cooking)
2 lbs of cubed ham (I only had about 1 lb)
1 cup diced onion(I used 1 cup of frozen chopped onions out of the freezer section--semi-homemade..LOL)
1 cup chopped celery (I only used 1/2 cup as we are not big celery eaters)
2/3 cup chopped carrots
2 cloves garlic, diced (I used garlic powder in place of cloves)
Salt & Pepper (I added 3 tsp salt and 1 1/2 tsp pepper so far)
Tabasco sauce it smelled kinda bland so I put 2 tsp in the pot while cooking and then I added 1 TBS of Frank's Hot Sauce after taste test)
Herbes de Provence (I did not add as I don't know what the heck this is??? so I added 1 tsp of seasoning salt and 1 tsp of paprika)

Set rinsed and drained beans and veggies aside. Simmer ham for about 1 hour. Add veggies and beans. Continue to simmer for another hour until veggies are soft and the ham begins to shred.

Add Tabasco sauce to taste. (I did not add any additional to my bowl of soup since I put it in the actual pot while cooking)

Serves 8. (6 points)

REVIEW

The serving size is HUGE--I am thinking it would be at least 1 1/2 cups if not more!!! It made almost an entire dutch oven full. It did take a little longer to cook than the additional hour to make the beans really tender...maybe about 20 min longer and would not hurt it to leave simmering on the stove to keep it warm. I ended up adding another 1 1/2 cups of water during the last hour of cooking as the liquid was cooking out. I figured out that it made about 15 cups of soup.

I think it is really good...it has a wonderful taste and it smells awesome!!! The hot sauce adds flavor but not any "heat". Perfect for a cold winter's day.
DH thought it was awesome and had 2 servings. He even asked for it for lunch tommorrow.

THIS ONE IS A KEEPER!!!!!