Senate Bean Soup

Cooking your own beans will save considerable money in this Senate Bean Soup. Use Great Northern or cannellini beans and wait to add salt until the final 30 minutes of cooking so that the beans stay nice and tender.

Ingredients

1 cup water

1 small ham hock

1 large onion

3 medium stalks celery

1 large potato

2 cloves garlic

1 cup chopped ham

2 (15-ounce) cans white beans

1/2 tsp pepper

Directions

1. Place water and ham hock in a large saucepan. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium. Cover; simmer for 20 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, dice the onion and celery. Peel and dice potato. Mince the garlic.

3. Add onion, celery, potato, garlic, ham, beans and pepper to saucepan. Cover; simmer until potato is very tender, about 20 minutes. Remove and discard ham hock.

4. Remove soup from heat and mash with a potato masher until soup is slightly creamy. Add more water if soup seems too thick.