White Bean Soup with Ham and Chard

Ingredients

• 3 cups dry white beans, soaked 8 hours or overnight
• 2 tsp. olive oil
• 1 cup diced onion
• 1 cup diced celery
• 2 cups diced carrots
• 1 T minced garlic
• 1 tsp. dried sage
• 1 tsp. ground fennel seed, optional but recommended
• 10 cups homemade chicken stock or 6 cans chicken broth
• 4 cups water
• 3-4 dried bay leaves
• 2 cups diced ham plus ham rind if available
• 1 bunch chopped red chard
• Goya ham bouillon if needed
• Fresh ground black pepper to taste

Directions

1. Cover the dried beans with cold water and soak them for 8 hours or overnight. Pour off the soaking water, rinse the beans well, and remove and discard any broken beans. Dice the ham, and if there is a rind, set it aside for the pot.
2. Chop the carrots, celery, and onion. Warm the olive oil in your soup pot, then stir in the vegetables, garlic, dried sage, and ground fennel. Cook for 3-5 minutes, just long enough to wake everything up. This step is optional, but it helps the sage and fennel settle into the vegetables.
3. Add the soaked beans, chicken stock, water, bay leaves, and the ham rind, if you have one. Bring the soup to a low simmer and cook for 1 hour.
4. Stir in the diced ham and continue cooking for 30 minutes, or longer if the beans need it, until they are very tender.
5. Cut away the tough center stem from the chard leaves and discard it. Slice each leaf lengthwise into fourths, then cut across the leaves into strips about 1/2 inch wide. Rinse the chard after cutting if it needs it. If the leaves are especially large, cut the pieces in half again.
6. Stir the chard into the soup along with 1 cup additional water. Taste the broth and add ham bouillon if you want a deeper ham flavor.
7. Cook for about 20-30 minutes longer, until the chard and beans are beginning to fall apart a bit. Finish with fresh ground black pepper and serve hot.