15 Bean Soup

This soup doesn’t have to have 15 kinds of beans.  One kind of beans is all it takes to make this scrumptious soup but just the name it is called is enough to take notice.  However, it is also the different tastes of the different beans that meld together in the soup that makes it good. 

• 1 lb. Beans (1, 13, 15 Beans, any number)
• 1 16 oz. canned diced tomatoes
• 1 med. Onion, chopped
• ½ cup chopped bell pepper
• ½ cup chopped celery
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 TBS chili powder
• ½ tsp. ground cumin
• 1 or 2 smoked ham hocks
• Or ham broth and pieces of ham
• Salt and pepper

Wash beans thoroughly.  Cover with water to 2” above the beans in a large pot and simmer with the ham hocks.  Great in a slow cooker but if you don’t have one then soak the beans overnight, drain and start as above.  When ham hocks are tender, remove from bones and cut them up.  Put them back in the pot then add all the ingredients and simmer some more until very tender.  Add 2 tsp. salt and dash of black pepper and adjust to your preference.  

I did not use ham hocks for this particular soup because I cooked a piece of ham in a roaster and used the roasting water in the pan with the drippings.  Then I cut up the rind that I peeled off the cooked ham that was so tender and added it to the soup. 

This is the kind of ham I like.  It is uncooked and unsliced.  I have the option of boiling or roasting it. I have not found this kind of ham lately, not even during the Holiday Seasons and I am disappointed.  I like it roasted on a rack in the pan with about ¼” of water to prevent it from drying.  Both my husband and I don’t like it with sugar or honey so it is just plain ham we slice at the table.  I can keep the drippings and the rind, even the bones for another time to put in other dishes.  He loves Pinto beans as in beans and rice.  I will cook that another time for this book.