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Your family will love this ham and bean soup recipe. It is simple, yet robustly flavored soup. With some crusty French bread and a small salad you can have yourself a great meal.
This soup recipe calls for butter or lima beans as they are called. But you can also use Italian cannellini beans, which may be a little harder to find.
I have had a love affair with lima beans for some time. Here is why. Several years ago I was found to be allergic to any kind of sulfite. Sulfites are a type of preservative commonly added to a lot of different foods and some body creams. If I ingested anything, like perhaps a piece of dried fruit, which usually contain sulfites, I would immediately start wheezing and I couldn’t breath for about an hour or more.
I was told that beans, especially lima beans had a trace mineral called molybdenum and if eaten, they would detoxify my system of the sulfites. How about that? I was sold on lima beans!
Lima beans, also, like most other legumes are a good source of cholesterol-lowering fiber. In addition to the lowering cholesterol benefits, lima bean’s high fiber content prevents blood sugar levels from spiking after a meal, which makes the lima a good choice for diabetics.
More Soup Recipes
Easy and Delicious Ham and Bean Soup Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 ham steak, cut in cubes (or any ham leftovers you may have on hand)
- 1 tbl canola oil
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 2 carrots, chopped in 1/2 inch pieces
- 1 tbl chopped fresh parsley
- 2 14.5 oz cans of large butter beans, drained
- 1/4 cup stewed tomatoes with juice, squeezed through a sieve
- 3 14.5 oz cans of chicken broth
- 1 bay leaf
Instructions
- Cut ham steak in bite size cubes and fry in frying pan for about 10 minutes, until it is nicely browned. Meat gives off a better flavor to soups when it has been is browned.
- Remove ham from the pan and set aside. Add oil to frying pan and saute onions, carrots and parsley for about 5 minutes.
- To a 3 qt pot, add the ham, butter beans, stewed tomatoes, chicken broth and bay leaf. Bring soup to a simmer. Simmer for 20 minutes. Test for seasonings. Add salt if desired. Serve.
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