Nourish Thyself

 Many bloggers choose a 'word of the year', and considering that I've been cooking up so many soups this winter in the Crock Pot, which is an appliance seeing a great deal of use in our kitchen over the past number of years, I am choosing the word 'nourish'. 

 It's what so many of us do on a daily basis.... my husband included, who loves to cook, but at times enjoys a break from it and allows me to make a few things that I enjoy.

My specialty is crock pot cooking.  I leave the fancier things for him, but blending a lot of flavors all together in one big pot, especially during the winter months is what I am all about.

 AND, although I DO enjoy his cooking, nearly all of his recipes are tomato based.  Give me a great chicken based pot of soup and I am one happy little wife.

 *photographed through the crock pot lid*

The thing about soups is that you can follow a recipe 100%, or you can simply read a recipe, get the gist of what flavors it contains and then simply punt.

Sooooo, here's what I made, and I did allow my husband to assist with the slicing and dicing of the veggies simply because with two of us working on this, we were in and out of the kitchen twice as fast.

 

 I wanted a BIG pot of soup so that we had enough to freeze for the long, cold winter ahead of us, which if the past couple of weeks' temperatures return, we will need plenty of hot nourishment.

RECIPE

Ham, Potato and Veggie Soup

Two 32oz cartons 'unsalted' chicken broth

Sliced or cubed ham

Handful of cubed potatoes.  I used baby reds, but it's your choice as to what kind of potatoes you use.

Three sliced carrots

Two stalks sliced celery

Cauliflower (sliced flourets)

Two cans white/northern beans (drained and rinsed)

Three or four cloves of garlic (sliced)

A few shakes of parsley

Two bay leaves

Two hours before we ate we addded sliced cabbage, but only a cup since I did not want this to become 'cabbage' soup, which I had made not so long ago.  I wanted to taste the ham, potatoes and the beans more than the cabbage this time around.

We rarely use measurements when making soups, so you will simply need to play with the amounts you use.

To us, soups are generally 'whatever you throw into the pot', and they always taste delicious.

We also try to use unsalted broth since the ham has salt.

Here are links to other ham soups if you need more specific measurements and directions.... my recipes, although yummy, are for the not so faint hearted cooks who don't need exact measurements.

Classic Ham and Bean Soup by Susie at Simply Sated (looks delicious!)

Crock Pot Ham and Bean Soup by Holly at Spend With Pennies

Eat well.
Stay nourished and warm.
Ciao!