I am always trying new slow cooker recipes that taste great, and today when I decided to do some experimenting I was so pleased to have a great success! Growing up, my grandmother made navy beans and ham as a side dish quite often and I would gobble them up. As an adult, I can say I haven't done much cooking with navy beans because the few times I did, I found them dull and bland (don't those mean the same thing in terms of cooking?).
Anyway, this soup is bursting with flavor and it gets it all from the veggies and ham - which is the best way to infuse flavor. So, here's what you'll need to make this yumm-worthy soup.
I snapped this picture of some of the dry navy beans (also called Great Northern Beans) and thought it was quite pretty. I love the detail of the beans and the striations of my bamboo cutting board below them.
You'll want to dice up your onions, celery and carrots so that they are all pretty uniform in size. I like them to be between 1/4 and 1/2 inch in size.
Look at all that yummy ham! I purchased some precooked ham and diced it into 1/4 - 1/2 inch cubes. I may or may not have popped a few in my mouth while dicing - quality check, you know.
Next comes butter, like Paula Deen always says: everything's better with butter. And that is NO exception to this recipe. Sure you can substitute olive oil or canola oil or whatever kind of oil pleases you, but there is just something about the flavor that butter infuses into veggies. Oh - and don't mind my skillet - my family may die someday due to teflon poisoning or whatever...I guess it only adds to the flavor, right? Ummm...
Look at those happy veggies bathing away in the buttuh.
Mmmm...sweating away in the butter sauna.
Look at the little guys, all nice and tenderized, but not too soft. See how the onions are translucent and the celery has lost some of it's vibrant green color? This is what you want.
Okay, now it's starting to come together. Beans, check! Ham, check! Buttery veggie goodness, CHECK! Don't forget to soften your garlic too - I forgot to take a pic of the veggies with the garlic sweating away.
Ham and Navy Bean soup just wouldn't be yummy without some good old chicken broth. I like to use the low sodium so I can control the salt that goes into my foods. Turns out, after all the cooking was done, I didn't need to add salt anyway! Not pictured is the addition of 2 1/2 cups of water, there would be no soup broth left if you don't add that.
So, this part is where you get to choose your cooking time. I tend to cook my food in the slow cooker for the first hour or so on high, you know, just to get the tub warmed up quicker. For this soup, I cooked it on high for 1 1/2 hours and then switched it to low for about 3 hours and it seemed to do the trick quite nicely.
If you're heading off to work and don't want to mess with the highs and lows, then just set it to low for 8-9 hours and when you get home you'll have some yumminess waiting for you.
Here is the soup in all it's glory! It was seriously so good and simple to throw together. Heck, if you wanna be a rebel, you could add some leafy greens (i.e. spinach or kale) to the mix and let that wilt for about 15-20 minutes.
Here, I saved you a bite!
Ham and Navy Bean Soup
---------->>>CLICK HERE for a printable version!
Ingredients:
1 pound dry, white Navy beans (also called Great Northern Beans)
2 1/2 cups cooked Ham, diced
4 whole Carrots, peeled and diced
3 whole Celery Stalks, washed and diced
1 whole, medium Yellow Onion, diced
1 tsp Garlic, minced
4 TBS Butter
2 14.5oz cans Reduced Sodium Chicken Broth
2 1/2 cups Water
Rinse and sort through the beans to check for dirt and rocks, then place into crock pot along with the diced ham.
In a large skillet, melt the butter and add the carrots, celery and onion. Cook over medium-high heat stirring frequently for about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and continue stirring for another 5 minutes, or until the onions are translucent and the celery has lost the "vibrant" green color. Be careful not to burn the veggies.
Add the cooked veggies to the beans and ham in the crock pot and then add the chicken broth and water. Stir to combine, cover and set crock pot to high for 1 1/2 hours, and then turn down to low for another 2-3 hours. Season with salt and pepper if desired.
Alternate cooking: Do as instructed above, but cook on low in the crock pot for 8 hours.
Variations: Try adding chopped fresh spinach or kale for the last 15-20 minutes of cooking, long enough for the leafy greens to wilt.
Serves approximately 6 people.
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