Ham and Bean Soup with Green Chile

When I was growing up, one of our regular family dishes was a sort of soup made with a ham bone and some chopped up ham and butter beans. I'm not sure what my mother seasoned it with, except probably more salt. But, I didn't particularly like it, perhaps because the main flavor was the beany taste of the butter beans.

Beans are an excellent and cheap source of protein. But, they are not a good source of all nine of the essential amino acids (which your body cannot synthesize from other foods like carbohydrates or fats). You can complement them with nuts or a grain like oats or quinoa.

But, commonly they are combined with fish or a meat product like ham to give you a complete, high quality protein source in your diet.

A good tip for beans is to season them with cumin, which adds its own flavor and neutralizes the characteristic bean taste. So, I try to use it in most of my dishes with beans.

This is really a two part recipe. First, I'll give you a simple recipe for cooking up dry beans for use in other dishes. Then, we'll add the ham and other ingredients to make the soup!

Basic Chile Beans

1 pound dried beans, such as pinto, black beans, Great Northern, etc.
water
1 tsp salt
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp ground chile, such as Chipotle or Sandia Red

1. The key to cooking good beans is to soak them properly first. So, rinse the beans 2 or 3 times to wash off any dirt. Then put them in a large pot and cover with water about 2 inches higher than the beans. Cover the pot and soak the beans overnight.

2. The next day, dump the rinse water and cover the beans again with water. Put the pot on medium-high heat.

3. Add the salt and spices. Stir the mix together and heat the beans until they come to a slow boil. Reduce the heat to medium or medium-low so that they are boiling slowly and steadily.

4. Cover the pot with a lid and let the beans simmer for about an hour and a half. They should be tender, but not mushy. They also should not be mealy, with a harder, courser texture. Generally, this comes from not allowing enough time for the beans to soak.

5. Generally, I drain off all the cooking water and set it aside for use as a broth. (I like to put a little on my dogs' food when I feed them!) Then, you can keep them in a container in the refrigerator for a week or so and take out one or two cups at a time to use for various dishes.

6. However, for tonight's soup, only drain off about half the liquid so that you can see the liquid among the beans in the pan.

Ham and Bean Soup with Green Chile

1 whole recipe of Basic Chile Beans (you can scale this down if you wish)
1 pound ham, cut into small chunks (use a bit more if you like)
1 ham bone (if available)
1 large onion, diced
1 14 ounce can diced tomatoes
1 7 ounce can mild diced green chiles

1. Cut as much ham as you can off the bone. Add the bone to the beans. Add the diced onions and stir them into the beans.

2. Cut the ham into chunks and add to the beans and onions.

3. Add the diced tomatoes and green chiles. Rinse the cans with a little water and add this to the soup.

4. Heat to a slow boil again, and simmer for about 3-4 hours. It actually should be ready to eat in about an hour. But, the flavor will develop better if you let it cook longer.

Enjoy it with a flour tortilla or a hard roll for dipping in the soup.

A good salad or cole slaw goes nicely with this, as well.