Ham-a-lam-a-ding-dong!

Holy Ham!  Literally.  The Easter ham dinner was delicious, but my word...what to do with all the leftovers?  Well, this chick is not the most creative one of the bunch, so here's a recipe for a soup that truly received all the leftover goodness .  It's a pretty basic ham and bean soup that was scrumptious on it's own, but then I threw the leftover funeral potatoes and BAM!  Outta sight!  Hope you enjoy!

Ham and White Bean soup
adapted from For the Love of Cooking
2 celery stalks, diced
1 cup carrots, diced
1/2 onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
2 cups ham, chopped
3 cans white beans, drained and rinsed (Great Northern or Navy works)
1 can diced tomatoes
4 1/2 cup chicken stock (I used a homemade ham stock, but chicken works great.)
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 bay leaf
salt and pepper, to taste
*Totally optional, but I put in about 1 1/2 cup of leftover funeral potatoes

Instructions

Prep your veggies.  Try to make your dices on all the veggies uniform.

    Spray a large pot with non-stick cooking spray and begin to heat over medium high heat. Add onions, carrots, and celery.  Saute until tender.  

Add garlic, ham and tomatoes. Cook for another minute or so, then add stock, 2 cans of beans, Dijon mustard, Worcestershire sauce and bay leaf.  

 Cook over medium low heat for 1 1/2-2 hours.  Remove bay leaf.  Blend soup with an immersion blender, or in a regular blender, or heck, just use a hand held mixer.  Add remaining beans and continue to cook for another 10 minutes.  You can also add any other "leftovers" at this time.  

 

Serve this bad boy up with some leftover rolls or a good crusty bread that can sop up all the last little bits.  Mmmm...

Eat well my friends, even if it is leftovers!