Ham Bone Bean Soup

By millerns

Any combination of beans just make this soup even better.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 pounds (24 oz) mixed dried beans such as navy, northern, white kidney, large lima, baby lima, pinto, black eyed, cranberry, pink, small red, green spit pea, yellow split pea, lentil or black - any combination will be good, the more the better
• 3 quarts water
• 1 tablespoon white vinegar
• 2 tablespoons Creole Seasoning (with salt)
• 1 left-over ham bone
• 1 to 1 1/2 cups chopped ham
• 2 quarts (8 cups) chicken broth
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed and minced
• 1 large onion, diced
• 1 large potato, peeled and diced
• 2 large carrots, diced
• 3 celery stalks, diced
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley or freeze-dried
• 2 teaspoons Creole Seasoning
• Pinch of thyme
• cup corn kernels(I like shoepeg)
• 2 -14.5 ounce cans petite diced tomatoes
• Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation

Step 1

Rinse beans in a deep bowl removing any unwanted and rinse several times. Place in a slow cooker with the water, vinegar and Creole mix. Set cooker on warm heat overnight or on low heat for several hours until hydrated. You can also cook stove-top for a few hours if you are home stirring every so often. Drain the beans in a colander.

Add the ham bone and the next 11 ingredients to a large stockpot and bring to a low boil, reduce to simmer (not boiling) on lowest heat for a couple of hours. In a slow cooker, cook on high for 4 hours, or 8 hours on low if you are working that day.

Remove bone if desired and cut any meat from the bone adding the ham back to the pot. Skim off any grease from the top of the broth. Add the beans, bring to just under a boil and then simmer on low until beans are done and mixture has thickened just a bit, about an hour. Stir in the corn and tomatoes, season with salt and pepper to taste and cook on lowest heat another hour or so. If continuing using the slow cooker, add ingredients and cook on high heat for 2 hours or until beans are nice and soft.
Serve with hot cornbread, corn muffins or crusty French bread.

Note: If the beans are still a bit firm when adding to the pot, hold off on adding the tomatoes until the beans have softened up a bit. Tomatoes will work against the bean's ability in absorption.