White Bean Soup with Ham and Rosemary

The South Beach Diet is different from other low carb eating plans in that it encourages eating complex carbohydrate foods such as beans, calling them "good" carbs. I made this bean soup lower carb than most by including plenty of veggies like celery, carrots, onions, and also some ham, all of which are lower in carbs than the beans. I used the last of the fresh rosemary from my garden to make this soup. Rosemary can get pretty potent in a recipe like this where you are going to be simmering it for quite a while, so if you're not sure just how much you love rosemary, you might want to reduce the amount a little. If you don't have fresh rosemary, use a little less than half as much dried rosemary, and crush it as much as you can with a meal mallet.

I love to make my own chicken stock, but in a recipe like this where it's going to cook for quite a while with other flavorful ingredients, I think homemade stock is not essential. If you're not using stock, I think the chicken soup base that comes in a jar and looks like highly condensed gravy is far superior than buillon cubes, which contain tons of salt and not much flavor. I like McCormick brand from Costco, if you live where you can find it.

I like adding just a tiny bit of Goya ham buillon to soup like this, but lately I haven't been able to find it and it doesn't show up as a product on their web site. Sigh. Penzeys ham flavor base is a good second choice. The ham flavor base is optional, depending on how much flavor is in your ham.

WHITE BEAN SOUP WITH HAM AND ROSEMARY

2 cups dry white beans (soaked 8 hours)
2 quarts chicken stock
(or 2 quart water with 2 T chicken stock base)
1 tsp. dried thyme
2 cups finely chopped celery
1 cup finely chopped carrots
1 cup finely chopped onion
2 cups finely chopped ham
1 envelope Goya brand ham flavor base (optional)
about 2 additional cups water
1/4 cup or less finely chopped fresh rosemary
1 T dried parsley or 2 T finely chopped fresh parsley
fresh ground black pepper to taste

Soak beans 8 hours or longer in cold water, drain and rinse well. Put beans, 2 quarts of stock or water/chicken base, and thyme in large soup kettle. Simmer 30 minutes.

While soup simmers, chop veggies and ham so that pieces are about 1/4 inch square. Add celery, carrot, onion, and ham to soup pot and simmer 30 minutes more.

Taste soup for seasoning. Add up to 2 cups more water, ham buillon if needed, rosemary and parsley to soup pot. Simmer one hour on very low heat. Add fresh ground black pepper to taste and serve.

Note: If you are using ham that has any kind of a rind on it, add it to the soup when it is simmering for the first hour and then remove and discard.

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