Ham & Potato 16 Bean Soup

Ingredients:
1 lb mixed dried beans*
6 cups chicken or ham stock
2 cups cubed ham
2 medium carrots, diced
1 onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 cubanelle pepper, diced
1 tablespoon ground mustard
1 teaspoon hot paprika
1 teaspoon thyme
1 teaspoon parsley
1 teaspoon chervil
1 bay leaf
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper


Directions:
The night before you want to eat the soup, place the beans in a 6-quart slow cooker. Fill the slow cooker insert with water, covering the beans by at least 2 inches. I normally fill the insert nearly to the top. Cover and allow the beans to soak overnight (with the slow cooker turned off).

The next morning, drain the beans and return them to the pot, discarding the water.

Add the vegetables, ham, spices and stock. Cook on low for 8-10 hours. Stir and serve.


Variation: If I'm home, I like to brown the ham and add half at the beginning and half about halfway through the cooking time. I think that yields a slightly hammier finished product but both are good.

*Look for these with the rest of the beans. This time I used a 16 bean mix (instead of my usual 15 bean, 16 bean contains barley!). Here they are pre-soak to give you an idea what the mix includes:

My thoughts:

This is a great way to use up leftover ham. I had one of those spiral sliced hams and it never seems like the spiral extends down far enough and there is always a lot of perfectly good, lean ham down near the bottom. I've taken to hacking it off and tucking it away for when I need cubed ham and serving the slices for dinner and sandwiches. So much better than just tossing it like I've seen hostesses do. It was a hickory smoked ham so added great flavor to this rich, comforting soup.