Slow Cooker Ham Bone Soup with Beans

Rather than a crock pot, I did it in the Dutch Oven over the stove low and slow all day - A good ham bone with meaty chunks of ham is the key for this soup. I used the left over ham bone from a honey baked ham, I discarded the crusty sugar coating but it still had a little sweetness to it, we enjoyed the slightly sweet twist the honey baked ham gave the recipe. I used only about half of the thickener called for and it was plenty thick enough. Certainly not an every day recipe, but great in the winter time, during or after the holidays.

I found the recipe to be delicious, but I did make a few changes to accommodate the ingredients I had on hand. First, I used leftover ham chunks I had in the freezer in place of the ham bone. I did not add the Veg flavoring, and I completely skipped the step where the thickening ingredients were added. The ham had great flavor, added just the right amount of seasoning, and the beans cooked nicely to thicken the soup. The only thing I would add next time is pepper, which we all added to our servings.

My beans never got soft. Maybe that was the salt from the ham, maybe it was how old and cheap my beans were. Hubs isn't a fan of beans regularly, but said the rest of the recipe was great.