Bean & Ham Soup

Many of us were raised on Mother Goose – sweet nursery rhymes and childrens’ songs that are at least a couple hundred years old. They were sung to us with safety, comfort, warmth, and love in the arms of our parents. Nursery rhymes cause wonderful memories that we want to pass along to our children.

There was educational content in many children’s songs and chants – learning how to count or sing the alphabet, recalling how many days in each month, mastering eye-hand coordination, knowing what to do in case of a fire, and preventing siblings from killing each other on long car rides.

However, some of these songs and chants come at a high cost: OUR SANITY!!!

Think of how many have become earworms —

• the song that never ends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
• any song performed by a purple dinosaur
• how many bottles of beer on the wall???
• lollipop, lollipop, oooo, lolli, lolli —- help me!!!
• what does the fox say???
• And for those of us who suffered thru phy ed in the 1970’s, “go, you chicken fat, go away!!!”

Now, before you get too angry with me for getting those songs stuck in your head, I have yet to mention why I’m bringing this up in a food blog. One of the most embarrassing and irritating chants ever insults one of the most nutrient-dense, fiber-rich, protien-packed, low-calorie, inexpensive foods created for us: BEANS. Yup. You know which chant I’m talking about.

Beans have a bad reputation for causing gas, and are unfortunately avoided by many who could benefit from all their good qualities. Without going into the scientific explanation (which I would not comprehend), the reason beans can cause gas is that our bodies lack the enzyme required to digest the sugars present in beans. Here’s the good news: soaking beans overnight not only softens them in preparation for cooking, but those gas-causing sugars are released, and rinsed down the drain!

Another hint: don’t eat potatoes in the same meal as beans. Their chemistry is worse than sibling rivalry, and you will be much more musical than you ever wanted to be.

I don’t want to geek out over this topic, but more recent evidence shows that eating beans actually helps to control gas and aids in healthy digestion. Look it up!

Regardless of the science, the annoying childhood songs, and my geekiness, our family loves ham and bean soup. With a ham bone and a couple cups of mixed beans schmoozing in the hottub — or pressure cooker — dinner is on its way.

My mom used to make this soup, often allowing it to simmer for hours on top of our wood stove. Even though it requires a little advance planning, the actual cooking process can be relatively quick.

The day before you want the soup, pour about 7 cups of boiling water over 2 1/2 cups of mixed beans. Let them sit all night long. Then dump the beans into a strainer and rinse. Rinse again. And probably one more time.

Also on the day before, make the ham broth. I use my pressure cooker for this — just a ham bone with about 6 cups of water. Cook on high for about 45 minutes. Allow the pressure to release naturally, and the bone to cool enough to handle. (This can be done on the stovetop, too. Just allow it at least 2 hours to simmer.)

Remove meat from the bone, strain the broth thru a sieve, and allow to chill overnight. In the morning, you will be able to skim a large amount of fat off the gelled broth. This is rather disgusting, but you will be left with a lovely, lean broth and tender meat.

THEN you get to load a few ingredients into the pressure cooker, and let the fun begin. Onion, garlic, tomatoes, spices, and some white wine is all it takes. (For the stovetop, plan on simmering the beans in broth for 2-3 hours first, then add the other ingredients and cook for another hour.)

For the pressure cooker, 10 minutes on high is all it takes. (Remember that it takes a good 10 minutes to come up to pressure and another 10-15 minutes to naturally release the built-up steam, but even without the tutelage of a purple dinosaur, I know that 35 minutes is much quicker than 3 hours.)

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This is an update on a previous post.