Ham and Black Bean Soup

So on Easter Sunday, I decided to cook Easter dinner.  Yes, on Easter Sunday at about 11:45 am, I committed to making dinner.  Okay it was only going to be for 6 of us so that's not too bad.  

My family of four headed to the grocery store to plan out the meal because I had no clue was I was going to make.  I ended up cooking crock pot ham, honey and cinnamon carrots, mashed sweet potatoes, mixed veggies, and spinach salad.  We had lots of ham left-over.  Fortunately for us, we love ham!  

I'm finding ways to transform the ham into delicious dishes so we are not just eating ham over and over again even though the Imaginative One would love that.  Last night I made ham and black bean soup using Bob's Red Mill's Black Bean Soup mix.  You can use any black bean soup mix or dried black beans to make this soup.

Ham and Black Bean Soup

Stars of the recipe:

• 2 cups of black bean soup mix or dried black beans


• 8 cups of water


• 3 cups of diced ham


• 1/2 lrg. onion, diced


• 4 cups of chicken stock


• salt and pepper to taste

Steps:

1. Rinse and sort the black beans or black bean soup mix.


2. Put the black bean soup mix or black beans, water, and 1 c. diced ham in a large soup pot.


3. Bring the water to a boil and then turn down to a simmer.


4. Let cook for 1-1/2 hours until the beans are soft.


5. Add the chicken stock, onion, remaining diced ham, salt, and pepper.  Cook for another 10 - 15 minutes.


6. Enjoy!  (We had ours with a pretzel roll.  We shared the soup with my mother-in-law.  She had hers with rice.)