Soups & Stews

Ham and Bean Soup

Name: Ham and Bean Soup
Ingredients: 1 ham bone; 1 bag dried beans; 1 onion; 2 celery stalks; Salt and pepper

From the kitchen of Mom (Mary April)

Ham and bean soup is one of the oldest dishes in American home cooking — a direct descendant of the bean pottages that sustained European peasants for centuries and crossed the Atlantic with the first settlers. In NE Ohio farm families, where a whole smoked ham was an event, the leftover bone was never wasted. It went into a pot of beans, and it fed the family for days afterward. Mary April made this the way her mother made it, and her mother before that.

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Ingredients

1 ham bone
1 bag dried beans
1 onion
2 celery stalks
Salt and pepper

Instructions

Wash and soak beans overnight. Rinse in the morning.
Put in large pan. Add ham bone and enough water to cover.
Bring to a boil and let simmer.
Chop vegetables and add to pan.
Let simmer until beans are soft, about 3–4 hours or longer.
Add salt and pepper to taste.

💡 Tip: Nothing warms you up on a cold Ohio winter day like this one.