Soup

Ham and White Bean Soup

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Ham and White Bean Soup

I love a good ham and bean soup and look forward to using up leftover ham in soup making. I’m not a runny soup type person, so I add mashed potatoes to a lot of my soups to thicken them up a bit. I also throw in broccoli, spinach and/or kale into a lot of my soups for added nutrients.

Ham and Bean Soup Ingredients

This is a quick soup to put together so make sure you have all your ingredients ready to go. If you don’t want to thicken it with mashed potatoes or add spinach, that’s ok.

I generally use navy beans because I like the size, but use whatever white bean you want. Just make sure you drain and rinse them well to get as much of the gases off of them as possible.

Sautéing Veggies

In a large stock pot, sauté the veggies for a few minutes to soften them. Then deglaze the pan with red wine or red wine vinegar, or a couple tablespoons of the chicken stock. Scrap the bottom of the pan to get all the stuck on bits of flavor up off the bottom.

Putting it Together

Now add the ham, beans, stock, and seasonings. Bring to a boil, reduce to simmer, and simmer for about 20 minutes.

Final Ingredients

If you’re adding mashed potatoes and hearty greens like spinach, kale, or chard, now is the time to stir them in. Simmer for another 5 minutes or so to wilt the greens and heat everything thru.

It’s as easy as that, you have a delicious ham and white bean soup ready to eat.

Enjoy!

Ham and White Bean Soup
Print Recipe

Ham and White Bean Soup

Ham and white bean soup is a wonderful soup for the dreary fall and winter days. Adding mashed potatoes, thickens it a little bit, and spinach and kale adds some extra nutrients to this soup.
Prep Time15 minutes
Cook Time30 minutes
Total Time45 minutes
Course: Dinner, Lunch
Cuisine: American
Keyword: ham and bean soup, soup
Servings: 4 people
Calories: 577kcal
Author: Eating With Deb

Equipment

  • Knife and cutting board
  • 6 to 8 quart stock pot
  • heat resistant spoon

Ingredients

  • 2 tbsp vegetable oil or canola oil
  • 1/3 cup yellow onion diced
  • 1 stalk celery chopped, about 1 cup
  • 1 each carrot chopped, about 1 cup
  • 2 cups mushrooms sliced
  • 2 tbsp red wine or red wine vinegar
  • ½ tbsp garlic fresh minced
  • ½ tsp sea salt
  • ½ tsp black pepper
  • 2 cups ham diced
  • 2 cans white beans drained and rinsed well, 15 oz cans
  • 4 cups chicken stock
  • 1 cup mashed potatoes optional
  • 4 handfuls spinach and/or kale, optional
  • 2 tbsp parsley chopped, optional

Instructions

  • On medium heat, heat large stock pot and add oil, onions, celery, mushrooms, and carrots. Sauté for 3 minutes.
  • Deglaze pan with red wine, scrapping all the brown bits off the bottom.
  • Add ham, beans, stock and seasonings. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.
  • If adding mashed potatoes, spinach and/or kale, or parsley, stir in and cook for another 3 minutes or so until the potatoes are hot and the spinach is wilted.
  • Enjoy!

Nutrition

Serving: 2cups | Calories: 577kcal | Carbohydrates: 57g | Protein: 37g | Fat: 22g | Saturated Fat: 6g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 6g | Monounsaturated Fat: 9g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 51mg | Sodium: 1524mg | Potassium: 1712mg | Fiber: 11g | Sugar: 7g | Vitamin A: 3079IU | Vitamin C: 26mg | Calcium: 173mg | Iron: 7mg

Blended Beet Soup

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I know you don’t like beets. They definitely aren’t for everyone, but I happen to love them. The nutritional benefits alone should be enough to convince you to at least give them a try. In this soup, I cut the beets with carrots and potatoes to remove some of the earthy flavors and add a little natural sweetness.

First, gather and prep all your ingredients. Depending on the size chunks you cut your vegetables in will depend on the cooking time, so smaller chunks equals less cook time. I also use beef stock instead of vegetable stock only because I like the flavor better, but use vegetable stock to keep this soup vegetarian, if that is your desire.

Prepping the vegetables is the hardest part of this soup. Once ready, add a little olive oil to a large, hot stock pot and add your onions. Saute for a couple minutes until they turn translucent, then add the garlic and saute for another minute or 2.

Add the rest of the vegetables, the stock and seasonings plus a little sea salt and black pepper. You can add more salt and pepper at the end if necessary.

Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer. Cook until the vegetables are fork tender, probably 30 to 45 minutes depending on what size you cut your vegetables.

Now it’s time to blend. If you don’t have a stick blender, I recommend investing in one. You’ll be amazed how much easier these are to use than a food processor for many different blended foods. When deciding on one to purchase, make sure the blades are metal.

If you don’t have a stick blender, use a food processor or a stand blender. Just be careful not to overfill, the soup is hot!

Blend until you reach your desired consistency. I prefer not totally pureed, it needs to have some thickness, and a few chunks don’t hurt.

Taste it to see if you need more salt or pepper. I also like to stir in a few handfuls of greens, beet greens, kale, spinach or arugula. It doesn’t matter, just whatever I have on hand. This adds extra nutrients, texture, and flavor.

I like to blend a little prepared horseradish and black pepper with sour cream and top my bowl of soup with a dollop of the sour cream mixture and some fresh parsley or chives.

Any leftovers, I freeze in portion size containers.

A word of caution – don’t be alarmed the next day after your morning constitutional, beets turn things red!

Enjoy!

Print Recipe

Blended Beet Soup

Beets are a hard sell for many people. By adding some potatoes and carrots to the beets, they cut the earthy taste and give this soup a little sweetness. Top it with some sour cream seasoned with horseradish and black pepper and you have a wonderful tasting and healthy fall/winter soup.
Prep Time20 minutes
Cook Time45 minutes
Course: Dinner, Soup
Cuisine: American
Keyword: Beets, Dairyfree, Glutenfree, soup, Vegetarian
Servings: 6 cups
Calories: 116kcal
Author: Eating With Deb

Equipment

  • Large Stock Pot
  • Stick Blender or Food Processor

Ingredients

  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • ¼ cup yellow onion diced
  • 1 tbsp garlic minced, fresh
  • 2 cups beets peeled and diced
  • 2 cups potatoes diced (russets, yellow or red work)
  • 1 cup carrots diced
  • 4 cups vegetable stock or beef stock
  • 1 tsp thyme dry
  • 1 tsp oregano dry
  • Sea salt and black pepper to taste

Instructions

  • In a large stockpot heat olive oil. Add onions and cook for 2 to 3 minutes until translucent. Add the garlic, stir and cook for another 2 minutes.
  • Add in the vegetables, stock, and seasoning. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 30 to 45 minutes until the vegetables are fork-tender. The time will vary depending on how big you cut your veggies.
  • Remove from heat and using a stick blender, blend until you reach your desired consistency. Taste and add more salt or pepper if desired.
  • I like to stir in a few handfuls of the beet greens if I have them or some spinach or kale. The heat will wilt the greens.
  • Serve with a dollop of sour cream mixed with prepared horseradish (to taste) and sprinkle on some parsley or chives if desired.
  • Enjoy!

Notes

If you do not have a stick blender you can use a blender or food processor. Just be careful not to overfill, the soup is hot!

Nutrition

Serving: 1cup | Calories: 116kcal | Carbohydrates: 22g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 3g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Sodium: 682mg | Potassium: 520mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 6g | Vitamin A: 3913IU | Vitamin C: 18mg | Calcium: 28mg | Iron: 1mg

Roasted Veggie Stew

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The garden is harvested and put in storage for the winter waiting for me to start using what I was able to grow this past summer. The weather is definitely changing and that brings on my desire for warm, comfort foods.

I freeze a lot of my garden vegetables to use in soups, stews, and other dishes throughout the winter. I make large batches and freeze them in individual or larger, family size portions. One of my first go-to soups is a roasted veggie soup since I have most of the ingredients chopped up in my freezer.

First I gather and prep all my veggies, onions, and garlic that I’m going to use. I happen to like beets a lot, but I realize I am in the minority, so switch them out with something else, say cauliflower, or squash, or another veggie you really like.  That holds true for any of the other veggies, you just need about 7 cups of chopped veggies, plus your onions. You can use purple or yellow onions, I happened to have purple ones this time around.

If your veggies were frozen, don’t worry, you can roast them in the oven that way, it just might take a little longer.

Next split your veggies onto 2 baking trays lined with parchment paper. One tray for the harder veggies that take longer to cook and the other for the rest of the veggies. Divide your garlic in half between the 2 pans, this ensures a garlicky flavor throughout and sprinkle some sea salt and black pepper on the veggies.

Bake your harder veggies in a 400 degree oven for about 30 minutes then add the other tray and bake an additional 15 minutes.

While your veggies are roasting, gather and prep your herbs. You can certainly use dried herbs, but I recommend fresh ones, the flavor is a lot better. If you need to use dry the ratio is 1 tsp dried to 1 tbsp fresh. So use a heaping 1/2 tsp each of dried herbs.

During you last 15 minutes of veggie roasting time, you can start on your rue and stock (sorry, no fancy pictures here). Melt the butter in a large stock pot and whisk in the flour, cook for a few minutes to brown the flour a little bit, this will take the pasty taste out of the flour. Slowly whisk in whatever stock you decided to use, if you are meat eaters and think you will miss having meat in your stew, use beef broth, but vegetable broth/stock works great too.

Once your vegetables are done, add them to your stock plus the fresh herbs. I generally throw in a few handfuls of fresh spinach or kale or beet greens at this point too. Mix this all together and let simmer for about 5 minutes. Now it’s time to enjoy!

Print Recipe

Roasted Veggie Stew

A great hearty stew for both meat lovers and vegetarians.
Prep Time30 minutes
Cook Time1 hour
Course: Main Course, Soups
Cuisine: American
Keyword: soup, stew
Servings: 10 cups
Calories: 155kcal
Author: Eating With Deb

Equipment

  • Large Stock Pot
  • 2 Sheet Pans

Ingredients

  • 1 cup beets cubed
  • 1 cup potatoes cubed
  • 1 cup carrots diced
  • 1 cup broccoli florets and stems
  • 1 cup bell pepper diced
  • 1 cup mushrooms sliced
  • 1 cup beans cut into bite sizes
  • ½ cup onions diced
  • 2 tbsp garlic fresh minced
  • 2 tsp Thyme chopped
  • 2 tsp oregano chopped
  • 2 tsp parsley chopped
  • 8 tbsp butter
  • 8 tbsp flour
  • 4 cups veggie or beef broth

Instructions

  • Line 2 sheet pans with parchment paper. On 1 spread out the potatoes, beets, carrots and 1 T of garlic. On the other spread out the rest of the veggies and remaining tablespoon of garlic. Drizzle the veggies with olive (or canola) oil and sprinkle on a little sea salt and black pepper.
  • In a 400° oven, roast the pan with the potatoes for about 30 minutes (until tender and browning). Roast the remaining veggies for 15 minutes (until tender). The outcome reduces the veggies down to about 4 cups.
  • In a 4 quart (or larger) sauce pan, melt 8 T of butter then whisk in the 8 T of flour. I like a thick, hearty stew, but if you want it more soup-like, use only 6 T each of butter and flour. Whisk this mixture for a few minutes to start browning the flour and take the pasty taste out of it. While whisking, slowly add the 4 quarts of veggie or beef broth. Don’t add the broth too fast or it will result in clumps.
  • Then add the fresh herbs and your veggies. Simmer for 5 minutes.
  • Enjoy!

Notes

If desired, you can add in some of the beets greens (sliced) at the end. Or a cooked grain of some sort works well in this stew, like barley or wild rice. I would definitely make the thinner version if adding barley or rice as either one will soak up some of the liquid.
This stew freezes well and will last several months in the freezer.

Nutrition

Serving: 1cup | Calories: 155kcal | Carbohydrates: 16g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 10g | Saturated Fat: 6g | Cholesterol: 24mg | Sodium: 483mg | Potassium: 312mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 4g | Vitamin A: 3241IU | Vitamin C: 36mg | Calcium: 31mg | Iron: 1mg