Le Gourmet TV
Hams, Beans and Greens
Hi everybody! Welcome back to Le Gourmet TV. Today, we’re making a soup with ham, beans and colored greens. Greens are some of my favorite things. So, the ingredient list again is pretty simple. We’ve got about a pound of white beans that I’ve allowed to soak overnight. You put them in a big bowl, you cover them with water, a little bit of salt, you let them sit for 12 to 14 hours. So in this case, the soup does take a little bit of planning because you’ve got to do something a day ahead. You could use canned beans if you want. I kind of prefer the dried ones. I think they taste better and they got a better texture.
We also got about a pound of chopped ham. You don’t have to dice it too thin, you don’t have to be too careful with your dice. You just want to get it chopped up. We’ve also got 2 medium onions that I’ve also diced. We’ve got one bay leaf, three cloves of garlic and some homemade chicken stock. After the soup is cooked and just before serving, you add in the shredded colored greens. You could use different types of greens. You could use spinach if you wanted, if that’s available to you, you could use Swiss Chard if that’s available. I usually use Swiss Chard in the summer time because I grow it. In the winter time, colored are fairly easy to come by so I use those as well.
So, let’s get over to the stove and get this cooking. I’ve got this pot in a medium high heat, I got some oil in the bottom. It is up to temperature so we’re going to start off with our onion. You don’t really want to fry the onion. You just want to soften it up and make it translucent. Now that the onion is softened up, we add in our ham and the garlic. In go the beans, the bay leaf and our chicken stock.
Now, with the amount of chicken stock you have, it doesn’t cover everything in the pot, you can supplement it with a little bit of water or you could put in some more chicken stock. So at this point, just stir it altogether, you turn the heat down to medium and you just leave this on a slow simmer for about 1 ½ or 2 hours.
The soup has been simmering for about 1 ½ now and we just about ready to take it to the table. So, the last step is to add the colored greens. So, just put a couple of handsful in, it doesn’t take much, and they cook down really quickly so that’s why you don’t want to put this in too early.
So, there you have it, ham beans, and greens soup. It’s a really thick soup. It’s more like a stew than a soup almost, and it’s a hearty meal. It doesn’t really take much with that. A little-- a slice of bread or maybe some cheese. So, give this a try and I hope to see you again soon here on Le Gourmet TV.
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