white bean soup

Last year on Thanksgiving Eve, my husband casually said, “a ham would be good, too for Thanksgiving dinner”. While I am certain that no one at my house fully understands the planning and prep time that occurs for this feast, I thought about it and decided, okay, we can add ham to the menu. And full disclaimer- I do love a good ham.

So I ran to the store, purchased a ham, not even a fancy one- just a store name, cheapest they had, spiral cut ham.

All hams are precooked. So essentially, you don’t need to cook it to death. You just need to warm it and keep the moisture in. My favorite is a huge, old fashioned picnic ham that just pulls apart when you try to slice it. But on this particular day, there was no time for that and the main course and star of the show was the turkey I had been brining and babysitting for two days…

Thanksgiving morning, I took the packaging off the ham and threw it cut side down into my large, oval slow cooker. And with everything I had going on, I honestly didn’t give a second thought to this ham. It had a glaze packet with it and I mixed it with some water (per the packet direction) and poured over it. And yes, I know, you can mix honey, brown sugar and dijon mustard together and make a wonderful glaze, but honestly, I can’t stress enough about how much I did not care about this ham.

After 4-5 hours on low, I took the cover off to find a watery, sweet smelling, clove infused concoction in the bottom of the slow cooker. I removed the ham and sliced it up on the platter, again, not caring about it. I dumped the watery concoction into a sauce pan, turn the burner on high and try to reduce it. I was sure I could make a sugary, real glaze out of the watery stuff.

It never really reduced, it was still just watery stuff. So I made a cornstarch slurry (1 tbsp cornstarch, mixed with 1 tbsp cold water) and dumped it into the saucepan. Then the magic happened…there was some type of chemical reaction, a puff of caramel looking stuff came up out of the pan, I jerked it off the burner and thought I was in real trouble. But what transformed was some type of wonderful, thick, sugary, glaze/sauce and I poured it over the ham on the platter.

It was THE BEST HAM I HAVE EVER MADE.

Am I going to recreate it for Easter? Of course, I am! We are doing family Easter Dinner on Saturday night (we do it when we can), so this week I am planning the menu and in addition to the ham we will have roasted carrots, deviled eggs, potato salad, cheesy mashed potatoes, baked beans and a carrot cake trifle.

For the carrot cake trifle, I use my old faithful Trifle Recipe and in place of the vanilla pudding I use cheesecake pudding, and in place of angel food cake I use carrot cake (box mix). I love a trifle because it is best made ahead and that works out well for planning.

For the potato salad, it is not often that someone’s recipe permanently changes the way I do things, but I found a potato salad recipe a few years ago that was very similar to mine- except instead of pickles, they added vinegar to the warm potatoes and let it soak in. I am telling you, it is a game changer. And I will never chop pickles again! Foodiecrush’s Best Potato Salad recipe is wonderful and you should try it.

And the best thing about ham…that leftovers that will transformed into White Bean Soup later in the week.

As for the pairing, I think you always have to have sweet tea with ham. And in addition, of course we will have a bottle of white and red open. I am leaning toward Mer Soleil Silver Chardonnay. It is a great Wagner wine, unoaked, smooth and crisp, just like spring. And the Mer Soleil Reserve Pinot Noir will be a good match for dinner, with hints of cherry and vanilla. These run under $25 a bottle and they are excellent quality wines. Fingers crossed my local store has them in stock. Cheers!

Slow Cooker Ham

One of the best hams I have ever made.

Ingredients

4-7 lb ham (I used spiral, but any half ham would work)

GLAZE
1-2 cups brown sugar
1/4 cup honey
2 tbsp dijon mustard
You may use water to thin out the glaze.
You may add clove and/or cinnamon
(You can also use the glaze packet that came with the ham. No judgement here.)

CORNSTARCH SLURRY
1-2 tbsp cornstarch
1 tbsp cold water

Directions

In a large oval slow cooker, place the ham cut side down. Pour over glaze and cook on low for 4-5 hours. Remove ham and place on a serving platter. Pour the remaining liquid into a saucepan and boil on medium high to reduce for a few minutes. Turn the heat down to low, and add the cornstarch slurry. Pour the mixture over the ham. Any remaining glaze just pour in a bowl and serve on the side.

Make this recipe your own. Play with the glaze. Add orange juice, pineapple juice, cloves and or cinnamon.

Christy Young Goza

This soup is comfort in a bowl. I love to soak the beans on a Friday night and make this on Saturday afternoon. It is perfect for game day or any day. This is a huge batch, I believe it made 6+ quarts, so be sure to grab your biggest soup pot- or you could easily cut the recipe in half.

Dry beans are very economical. This 2lb bag was $2.49 and most of the ingredients are pantry staples. There is a lot of chicken stock in the soup and I had no homemade stock in my freezer, but I hit the jackpot at the grocery store today-it was BOGO! Don’t ask how many I bought….Thanksgiving is coming up. Total, I am sure I have less than $20 in this pot of soup that will feed a small army.

The trick to dried beans is the overnight soak. I use this method and not only does it result in a soft, buttery bean, it also takes some of the “bean after effects” out of the beans. I always keep several types of dried beans in my pantry- pintos, great northern, navy, etc.

There is one rule to dried beans- don’t salt them until they are softened. If you salt them too soon, you will have to cook them much longer to get the soft, buttery effect.

I like to serve this with my Memaw Young’s Cornbread. In my family, we have two cornbread recipes: Memaw Young’s Cornbread and Nannie Logan’s Cornbread. They are vastly different…and I already see the title of my next blog.

White Bean Soup

Servings: 10-12
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Ingredients

2 lbs dry white beans, I used Great Northern, Navy would work well too.
10 cups chicken broth
2 tbsp olive oil
2 cups diced ham or smoked sausage
1-2 heads of garlic, chopped
3 celery stacks, diced
4-5 potatoes, diced
3 carrots, diced
1-2 onions, diced
1 tbsp rosemary
1 tsp celery salt
1 tsp thyme
2 bay leaves
2 tsp salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Soak the dry beans in water overnight. Rinse and set aside. In a soup pot, add olive oil and diced ham. Cook on medium heat until the ham begins to brown. Toss in the onions, carrots, celery, rosemary, thyme, celery salt and garlic and saute for a couple of minutes. Add potatoes, beans, chicken stock and bay leaves. Bring to a boil and turn down to a simmer. Cover and cook for 2 hours, stirring occasionally. Add additional chicken stock if needed. When beans have softened, usually about an hour of cooking, add salt. Add freshly ground pepper right before serving.

Make this recipe your own. Add cayenne pepper or jalapenos for heat. Make a Mediterranean version by adding oregano and fresh lemon juice. Make a vegetarian version by removing the ham and substituting vegetable stock for chicken stock. Top with a hot sauce for a dash of spicy, vinegary goodness.