Mike Sternisky's Bean Soup

By LyndaD

Ingredients

• 1 Ham Bone
• 1 sm. pkg of Publix baby Lima beans, soak the beans in water overnite changing water freq. as it lets out the gas.
• 10 cups water ( I use better than boullion) to make stock. Follow directions on jar. or you can use Swansons chicken broth
• 1 lg. bay leaf
• 1/2 teas. dried basil
• 1/2 teas, thyme
• 1/2 stalk celery diced and 1 stalk cut in half and put in pot. Remove when soup is done
• 1/2 sm. onion diced small
• 2 cloves of garlic minced
• 2 carrots diced into small pieces
• Black papper ( no salt needed as hambone is salty.)
• 1 can petit cut del monte tomatoes, juice and all
• 1 cube of beef bouillon ( I usually add one to spice it up in case.)

Details

Adapted from facebook.com

Preparation

Step 1

Add beans, hambone, onion, celery, garlic, bay leaf, spices, tomatoes etc. Simmer and skim off excess fat and foam that comes to the top. Cook until beans are soft enough to flatten with spoon against side of pot. Add carrots last and check for doneness. (I add ditalini pasta about 2 hands full) and let cook at a simmer until done.