Here's a recipe that we love. It has both dried navy beans and green beans, as well as a few other things. I'll give you the recipe, then I'll you how I made it. I did not add the green beans. If you don't have a ham bone or don't feel like baking a ham, just grab a ham slice at the market and use that.
Ham and Bean Soup
3/4 cup dry navy beans
1-1/2 pounds smoked ham shank
6 cups water (I probably used four cups)
4 celery ribs, sliced
4 carrots, halved and sliced
1 large onion, chopped
1 cup fresh green beans, cut into 1-inch pieces (I didn't use any)
1-1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1-1/2 tsp. dried basil
1 tsp. salt (I used about 1/2 tsp.)
1 tsp. paprika
1/2 tsp. dried oregano
1/4 tsp. dried thyme
1/4 tsp. white pepper
1/4 tsp. Liquid Smoke
1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper
2 cups shredded cabbage
Place beans in a Dutch oven and add water to cover by 2 inches. Bring to a boil; boil for 2 minutes. Remove from heat, cover, and let stand for one hour. Drain and rinse beans, discarding liquid.
In a Dutch oven, place ham shank and water. Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer for one hour. Add beans, simmer one hour longer or until meat and beans are tender. Remove from heat. Cool slightly. Remove ham shank. Cover and refrigerate the ham shank and the soup.
Remove meat from the ham bone and discard bone. Set meat aside. Remove fat from broth. Return broth with the beans and meat to pan. Add celery, carrots, onion and green beans. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, for ten minutes. Add tomates and seasonings and cook for ten minutes. Add cabbage and cook 35 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Makes 7 servings.
Note: This was too much work for me on a Monday night. Besides, I didn't have a ham bone in the freezer, but I did have an 8-ounce ham slice, so I chopped that and used that instead. I didn't have to chill the ham shank or anything, which saved quite a bit of time.
I covered the beans, brought them to a boil, then turned the heat off and covered them for an hour. Then I cooked the beans for an hour to get them tender. At that point, I added all the vegetables (except for the cabbage), the tomatoes, and the seasonings. Simmered the soup for about 15 minutes or so, then added the cabbage. Simmered for another 30 minutes. Put it in containers and chilled it a while outside on the deck. Then froze some of it and put the remainder in the fridge.
Oh, I had had about 1 cup of so of canned navy beans from something I made a few days ago. I threw those beans into the soup when I added the vegetables. I didn't add any green beans.
When I first added the seasonings, Rick actually asked me what in god's name I was cooking.....we were both afraid the soup was going to be really spicy. But as it cooked, it really mellowed out. Rick liked it just the way I did it. He told me to please make it again, and not to lose the recipe!
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Here's another one....
The person who gave me this recipe (and I don't know where she got it) suggests putting 1-1/2 cups of the soup into the food processor to puree it, then adding the puree back into the soup pot to thicken the soup. It gives a thicker soup. I did that and we liked it that way. I'm sure you could mash it with a potato masher or even a fork.
Ham and Bean Soup
1 lb. dry great northern beans
8 cups water
1/2 tsp. salt
1 ham bone
1 cup finely chopped or shredded carrots
1/2 stalk chopped celery
1 cup chopped onions
1 ts.p minced garlic
1 tsp. dry mustard
2 bay leaves
2 cups chopped cooked ham
1/2 tsp. ground white or black pepper
Rinse beans. In a large pot over high heat, bring the water to a boil. Add the salt and the beans and remove from heat. Let beans soak for an hour.
Return the pot to high heat and place the ham bone, carrots, celery, onion, garlic, mustard and bay leaves in the pot. Stir and bring to a boil, reduce the heat to low and simmer for 60 minutes or until the beans are almost done.
Remove the ham bone, cut off any meat on the bone and add the meat to the pot. Discard ham bone. Stir in the 2 cups chopped ham and simmer for 30-40 minutes or until beans are done. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Note: This is a good soup. You might want to increase the spices a bit...more mustard, garlic, onion, another bay leaf....to suit your own tastes. And do puree the 1-1/2 cups of soup to thicken the rest of the pot. It's worth the time.
I think you could use a crock pot for this soup, as long as you cook the dried beans in the kettle....don't try to cook dried beans in your crock pot. I don't know how well that will work. I've never done it, to be honest.
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Now, I have not tried this recipe, so I can't say anything about it. We don't eat fried chicken anymore. But my GF loves it, FWIW; she's the one who gave me the recipe. Although this is more like the shake'n'bake type, I think.
Oprah’s Un-fried Fried Chicken
6 chicken drumsticks – skins removed
6 chicken breast halves – skins removed
3 ½ c ice water
1 c plain nonfat yogurt
Cooking spray (pam)
Breading:
1 c dried Italian breadcrumbs
1 c all-purpose flour
1 tbsp old bay seasoning
½ tsp garlic powder
½ tsp creole seasoning
1/8 tsp fresh ground pepper
Dash cayenne pepper
½ tsp dried thyme
½ tsp dried basil
½ tsp dried oregano
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Coat a baking with 3 sprays of cooking spray. Put chicken in a large bowl of ice water. Put yogurt in a medium bowl. Set both bowls aside. Toss all breading ingredients in a large Ziploc bag. Seal & shake well to mix. Remove 2 pieces of chicken from ice water. Roll each in yogurt. Put chicken in the bag, seal and shake to coat thoroughly.
Transfer breaded chicken to prepared baking sheet. Repeat the process until all pieces are breaded. Spray the chicken lightly with the cooking spray.
Place the sheet on the bottom shelf of the oven. Bake for 1 hour. Turn pieces every 20 minutes to allow even browning. Serve hot or at room temperature.
2.2 g of fat, 185 calories, per breast
4.2 g of fat, 195 calories, per drumstick
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For bean soup, a regular large soup pot should be ok. Just make sure there's enough room in case you have to add more water along the way.
