Gatekeeper's Ham and Navy Bean Soup

Ingredients

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) real butter

Spiral cut ham bone and as much of the ham (medium diced) as you want to add.

1 quart water

1 quart chicken stock

1lb bag navy beans

1/2 medium chopped white onion

1 cup medium chopped carrots

1 tsp granulated garlic

2 tsp sea salt

1 tsp fresh ground pepper

Directions

Check your beans carefully for rocks, etc.

Soak beans overnight in apprx 4 qts of water.

Rinse the beans and put them in your stockpot.

Add the water & chicken stock, salt and pepper, and bring to a boil.

Reduce the heat and simmer for about 2 hours (or until the beans are getting soft).

Heat the butter and garlic in a small skillet over medium heat. Sauté the onion until lightly translucent. Add the onion to the pot of beans (along with the remaining butter, if any)

Remove 1-2 cups of the bean mixture, puree in a blender, and return to the soup.

Add to ham bone, ham and carrots to soup mixture. Simmer another hour.

Just before serving, season the soup with salt and pepper to taste.  Be careful not to over salt the beans. The ham adds quite a bit of salt.

You can always add more ham to the soup as you go, if it needs it.

If you have a favorite seasoning mix, such as, Emeril’s, Old Bay, etc. You can add that, as well. Go very sparingly. You can easily overpower the taste of the beans and ham if you are not careful.  A pinch or two at a time, and taste.  If you are like me, you will usually customize nearly every recipe to some degree.

**Pairs naturally with fresh buttermilk cornbread.  You can find my recipe for cornbread if you search my blog or just click the above link. This is a savory, not a sweet, cake like cornbread**