Bean and Ham Soup!

Ingredients

• 1 pound dry great Northern beans
• 8 cups water
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 ham hock
• 1 cup chopped carrots
• 1/2 stalk celery, chopped
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1 teaspoon mustard powder
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 cups chopped ham
• 1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper

Directions

1. Rinse the beans, sorting out any broken or discolored ones. In a large pot over high heat, bring the water to a boil. Add the salt and the beans and remove from heat. Let beans sit in the hot water for at least 60 minutes.
2. After the 60 minutes of soaking, return the pot to high heat and place the ham bone, carrots, celery, onion, garlic, mustard and bay leaves in the pot. Stir well, bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and simmer for 60 more minutes.
3. Remove ham bone and discard. Stir in the chopped ham and simmer for 30 more minutes. Season with ground white pepper to taste

SO I got this recipe off of All Recipes and I LOVE it! I did it a little bit differently though.

I used canned white beans and I don't think it made any difference. Also I didn't use the ground mustard because I didn't have any. When I do it again I am going to make sure I have it on hand because I think it was defiantly missing something and I think the mustard would help. Other than that, the soup was so hearty and yummy. It was a good soup for a "yucky" day. I was really nervous about using a ham hock, but I think it made the soup that much better. So go out and buy them. They look yucky but they are worth it in the end. Plus they don't cost to much.