Ham and Bean Soup

Name: Ham and Bean Soup
Yield: Serves 6–8
Ingredients: 1 ham hock, smoked or unsmoked, whichever you prefer, soaked overnight if salty; 1 lb/450 g haricot beans, soaked overnight; 3 leeks, washed, trimmed and thinly sliced; 2 sticks of celery, washed, trimmed and thinly sliced; 2 onions, skinned and neatly chopped; 2 cloves of garlic, skinned and chopped finely; 4 medium to large potatoes, peeled and diced; 4 pints/2.3 litres water; Salt, if needed; Freshly ground black pepper

Preparation info

Serves
6–8

Difficulty
Complex

Appears in

The Claire Macdonald Cookbook

By Claire Macdonald

Published 1997

About

This is a sustaining meal in a soup. It needs long, slow cooking and is therefore very convenient in that it has to be made in advance. I prefer to use a smoked ham hock, but it can be very salty so I soak it overnight and throw away the water before simmering it with the other ingredients of the soup.

Ingredients

1 ham hock, smoked or unsmoked, whichever you prefer, soaked overnight if salty
1 lb/450 g haricot beans, so

Starter
Gluten-free
Soup

Method

Put the soaked ham hock and the beans into a large saucepan with the onions, garlic, leeks and celery. Add the water and simmer very gently, with the pan uncovered, for 2 hours. Then let the soup cool. Skim off any fat from the surface. Remove the ham hock. Add the potatoes to the soup and simmer for a further hour. Cut the meat off the ham hock and throw away the bone and fat.

Put the