Bean and ham soup

I normally use canned beans because they are so easy, however I soaked a bag of beans and they were really easy. They took a little forethought as I had to do them a day in advance, but they were much less expensive than canned beans and really delicious.

To prepare beans (the easy way) for soup: I used a mix of white beans and roman beans.

Boil 3 cups of water in a soup pot, add 1-2 cups of beans and let cook for 20 minutes. Remove from heat and let soak overnight. Drain before using.

To make soup:
Saute 1 onion, 2 diced carrots and 2 stalks of diced celery (you can also buy this fresh Mire Au Poix already prepped from Trader Joe's) in 1 Tbs. of olive oil.

While the veggies saute, dice 1 C. of ham and add to the pot. You can either use a ham steak or shank of ham (this looks like the end piece of a large cut of ham). All of these hams are already smoked and cooked.

Add in soaked beans and stir to combine. Add in 2 bay leaves, 4-5 C. of chicken stock, a tsp. of celery salt and a good pinch of black pepper. If you don't have chicken stock on hand, you can also add water and 2 Tsp. of the Better than Bouillon concentrate.

Cover and let simmer for a minimum of 1 hour, preferably longer. Season to taste before serving.

Note- You can also add any kind of greens (kale, collard or even mustard greens) to this soup. Simply rinse the kale, chop and add to the soup when you add the beans in.