Save your leftover ham bone and add it to a soup pot with water. Throw in some beans, cut up vegetables and seasonings and you'll have yourself one satisfying bowl of soup.
My Mother made the best bean soup. She never measured, so I'm going to help you out with that
by about guess-measuring today while I make my soup.
Add your leftover ham bone, with bits of ham still attached, to a soup pot.
You'll need about 2 C of dried beans, about one 16oz. bag kidney beans.
Add to the pot.
Add about 10-12 C of water.
Bring to a boil. Cover and boil while you chop the vegetables.
Add about; 1 onion, cut-up, 2 garlic cloves, 1T salt (less if your ham is salty),
1t pepper, 1t thyme.
Roughly chop about 3 carrots, 3 stalks of celery including the leaves,and 1/2 tomato.
Add to the pot.
Add about 3 peeled potatoes, cubed.
Stir and bring to a simmer.
Cover and let simmer for about 2-3 hours until the beans are tender.
Add the 1/8 t nutmeg. Now you can thicken it slightly with a roux.
Melt about 2T shortening or butter in a small skillet.
Stir in about 1/4 C flour.
Stir constantly and cook until it's the color of coffee with cream,
about 2 minutes.
Ladle a little of the hot soup broth into the skillet,
then return all of this to the soup pot.
Bring to a boil, stirring until thickened.
Check for seasoning and add a few dashes of Maggi.
Serve with a little Maggi on the side to season to taste.
You can find Maggi seasoning in the condiment section of your grocery store.
Good for lots of things.
This is the soup without being thickened with the roux.
It's good that way too.
This is the thickened soup.
You can serve this the authentic German way with potato pancakes,
I hope you enjoy this and never throw out bones again!
Guten Appetit!
