White bean and ham soup

Ingredients

• 1 pound dry great Northern beans
• 8 cups water
• 4 teaspoons chicken base (alternately, 4 cups water, 4 cups chicken broth)
• 1 ham bone with some ham still on (I just cut the bone out of the meat and then throw it in, don’t worry about trimming meat off)
• 1 cup chopped carrots
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1 teaspoon mustard powder
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 cups chopped ham
• 1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper

Directions for Stove

1. Rinse the beans, sorting out any broken or discolored ones. In a large pot over high heat, bring the water to a boil. Add the beans and remove from heat. Let beans sit in the hot water for at least 60 minutes (I do this step the night before and soak them overnight, then drain the water and add 8 cups fresh water).
2. After the 60 minutes of soaking, return the pot to high heat and place the ham bone, 2 cups ham, carrots, celery, onion, garlic, mustard, ground white pepper and bay leaves in the pot. Stir well, bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and simmer for 60 more minutes.
3. Remove one to two cups of soup, add to blender or food processor, puree and return to soup for heartier, thicker soup.
4. Remove the ham bone, strip off any lingering ham and discard the bone. Stir in any ham from ham bone, remove bay leaves and serve