15 bean soup

YUMMY!

 

I knew that I wanted to make 15 bean soup with the leftover ham from our Christmas Eve dinner. I have made it on the stove before, but I wanted to do it in the crock pot this time. I asked some sweet friends of mine, Sandy and Ria, how they would do it.  I took their instructions and modified it just a bit.   I started soaking my beans, one bag of 15 bean soup that you buy at the grocery store,  last night. I think that they soaked for almost 16 hours!  I was told that the longer you soak them, the less gassier they are! I didn't know that!   

 

I cut up about eight carrots, one onion and one bell pepper and put it on the bottom of the crock pot.

On top of that, I added the ham hock and some of the ham meat.

Then I added the beans and 2 quarts (8 cups) of water.  It was all the way to the top! I didn't know how I was going to fit anything else in there!   I put it on low for 8 hours!  Man, my house was smelling so good!

About 3 or 4 hours in, I added a can of fire roasted garlic diced tomatoes, 1 teaspoon of minced garlic, 1 teaspoon of chilli powder and a little bit more ham meat.  I ended up putting some more minced garlic and some garlic powder. Garlic is good!  When it only had about 30 minutes left, I added the seasoning packet that came with the beans. 

Finally it was done!  

My kids are not huge soup eaters, so my hubby and I sat down and had huge bowls of it! With a little dollup of sour cream and some cheese, man, it was SUPER good!  It has great flavor! The beans were a bit tough still, so I left it on low for another hour, hoping the beans will soften up some more!   

15 bean soup: mission accomplished! DELISH!!!!