White Bean and Ham Soup

We picked up a new toy for the kitchen this weekend, something that Matt has been thinking about and researching for a little while.

It's a Breville Fast Slow Cooker. What the heck does that mean? Well, it's a slow cooker, but also a pressure cooker, and a steamer, plus it apparently makes the fluffiest rice ever. Oh and unlike other slow cookers, you can sauté and sear ingredients in it before starting the slow cooking (love this, no getting another pan dirty). Matt has been wanting a pressure cooker, but I just felt like it was another kitchen appliance to store. He sold me on this one because it can do some many things and take the place of a couple other appliances in the cupboard.

Matt's boss has one and says it makes the most amazing soups, so that is where we started.

This is a pretty basic ham and bean soup just using the leftover ham bone from Christmas and dry Rancho Gordo Yellow Eye beans. We threw everything in the machine, set the pressure cooker for medium and let it go for 30 minutes. I have to say I was dubious about the beans cooking in 30 minutes. (We had a few first timer problems, like "someone" couldn't stop himself from touching it which let out all the pressure and we had to start over part way in.) The end result was pretty amazing though, a rich soup with perfectly cooked bean. We didn't even use stock as the base. So, I would say the first experiment was pretty darn successful and homemade soup in 30 minutes that tastes like it cooked for hours is quite a treat.

White Bean and Ham Soup
We did this in a pressure cooker, but you can easily make it in a slow cooker or on the stove, it'll just take longer

ham bone with meat on it
1 c chopped yellow onion
1 c chopped celery
1 c diced carrot
1 c dry yellow beans (or other white bean)
1 garlic clove, minced
2 bay leaves
2 T chopped fresh parsley
salt and pepper

Cut the excess meat off the ham bone. Chop and set aside. We got about 5 oz of meat from ours. You'll put the bone in your soup.

Put everything except the parsley in your pressure cooker, slow cooker or large soup pan. Add 6 cups of water. In a pressure cooker, set to medium and cook 30 minutes. In a slow cooker set to high and let cook 4 - 6 hours (until beans are soft). On the stove, bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and let simmer for about 3 hours, until the beans are tender.

Remove the ham bone. Stir in the parsley and reserved ham. Taste and season with salt and pepper as needed.

Makes 5 servings
183 calories per serving (will vary based on the amount of ham meat you put in your soup.

If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at http://agoodappetite.blogspot.com OR at http://agoodappetite.com then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact me at katbaro AT yahoo DOT COM. All recipes, text and photographs in this post are the original creations & property of the author unless otherwise noted. © 2007-2013 Kathy Lewinski