Mr.CBB’s Rustic Country Ham Vegetable Soup
As the days and nights get colder homemade soup during the winter months always seems to be on the menu. Some of our favourites are broth based but we also like cream of broccoli, potato and ham, and pea soup. I am passionate and well-known for creating and throwing things into a pot to see what I can stir up but I’m rubbish with naming my creations. Today’s easy to make soup name was created by my mate Beth Ann better known as (Aunt B on a Budget) who jumped at the opportunity to name this soup. Each night on Facebook I post my “What’s For Dinner” post and I share what frugal meal we are making and ask the fans to do the same. Well I’m thrilled to see many fans cooking homemade meals and wanting to try new recipes. It’s a great way to connect with the fans as well as learn different meals that we can create in our own home.
Budgeting and Food do go hand in hand as it is part of that Umbrella I talk about in my Best Financial Tip post. I’m sure any foodies will tell you that making soup at home is cheaper than cracking open a can plus it’s better for you. If you are spending money on something it’s all part of the budget. So, after asking my fans last night to help me name my new soup Beth Anne instantly came up with “Rustic Country Vegetable Soup” then I added in the ham part. Thanks Beth! So today I bring to you this quick, easy soup that doesn’t come from a can it comes from my kitchen to yours. I hope you enjoy this simple soup recipe as much as we did last night. We enjoyed this with some fresh buttered Italian bread or you can make your own like my olive bread recipe that matches well with this soup.
What are your favourite types of homemade soups?
Tools:
- Big Soup Pot
- Small pot
- Strainer
- ladle
- spoon
- can opener
- peeler
- chopping board
- knife
Time:
- 15 minutes to prep
- 45 minutes to cook
Ingredients:
- Left over vegetable peels– I used carrot peel, onion peel, celery tops and fennel tops or 6 cups of vegetable stock
- 4 tablespoons/cubes of chicken bouillon or 4 cups of chicken stock
- 1 Fresh basil cube (**if you don’t have this, 1/2 cup fresh chopped basil or 1/4 cup dry basil**)
- 4 cloves of garlic minced
- 1 medium onion chopped
- 2 carrots chopped
- 1 tomato chopped
- 1 cup of chopped celery
- juice of half a fresh lime
- 1 tablespoon freshly chopped ginger
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon of pepper
- 1 tablespoon of dry parsley or bunch of fresh chopped
- 1 small can of tomato paste
- 1/2 cup orzo pasta
- 1/2 cup of pearl barley
- 2 cups of dry black beans **dry-soak over night than boil for 15 minutes or use canned black beans** (you can use as much or little as you wish)
- 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
- 2 cups of chopped ham chunks
Preparation:
- Put the black beans that were soaking over night in a small pot of water and boil them just until tender, remove and rinse.
- While the beans are cooking take all your peels and pop them into a pot with 6 cups of cold water. Boil until the peels are tender and the broth takes on a yellow or golden hue. Strain the vegetable stock and compost the vegetable peels.
- Put the beans inside the pot of vegetable broth along with the basil cube, and the chicken bouillon or chicken stock then bring to a boil
- Add in your vegetables onions, celery, carrots, tomato
- Add in the minced garlic
- Add in the chopped ham
- Add in the pearl barley and orzo pasta
- Add in the salt and pepper
- Add in the juice of half a lime
- Add in the fresh ginger
- Add in the fresh Parsley
- Add in the tomato paste
- Add in the extra virgin olive oil
- Stir and simmer on medium heat for 45 minutes or until the barley is cooked
- Enjoy!
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I am a Soup Addict so Please forgive me while I get my BIB. LOL Soups On, Thanks
You’re welcome, we love soup as well.
Seems easy enough. I would love to try some of this homemade olive bread! I think making my own bread would be a fun hobby. Not sure I have the patience though.
I’m not the best with bread but I’m not the worst. I also made my own tortillas which are dead easy. You can find the recipe on the blog. They are no fail!
Looks perfect for a nice winter evening. Sounds pretty healthy too 😉
Soups are a favorite here too. We have them every Tuesday, year round and eat the leftovers for Saturdays lunch. Your soup looks really good. Like you said using vegetable ends you save $$. Love this post because this is where my head is tonight after all the snow today!
Thanks! Yes we save the peels of onions, carrots, celery and fennel bits, ginger etc and boil it up to make broth once a week so we can make a huge pot of soup for the week. Frugal and saves money, plus it’s homemade! Glad you liked it! Cheers Mr.CBB
The soup looks good!!! I’m thinking of getting a big ziplock freezer bag for the veggie trimmings, freezing a load of them and then every so often getting them out to make a nice big batch of stock then. Once it’s made I can always freeze it again if need be.That and chicken bones and such to make different kinds of stock. We have two stock pots that some body bought to make the beer he doesn’t drink anymore…..lol..
We just keep a big ziploc bag in the freezer upstairs and fill it with peels and for us once a week we boil it up . Yes you can freeze it if you like. I love using the peel of the onion and the layers we don’t use it gives the broth a golden color.
Boiled up last night’s little chicken with some carrot pieces that were left. Three hours later I strained into a pot that will spend the night in the fridge. Tomorrow I will skim the fat off the top and package it up for the freezer. Won’t be a lot but it will be concentrated so I can add water if need be. That’s how I do the turkey too, but it goes in the stockpot for 7-8 hours.
At least you are using every bit to it’s potential good for you.
I would have to say my favourite soups are cream of broccoli and butternut squash. Your soup recipe looks delish!
I love almost every soup going.. unless it’s talking back to me… lol
Omg that looks so yummy!
Man this looks awesome. I love making soups: each week I cook all the left over vegetables and use our vitamix blender to make something good!
That’s cool.. do you save all your peelings and veg tops to make a veg broth?
Looks yummy, and seem pretty simple to make
You can probably make it faster than it takes to open a can and heat it up .. haha ok not that fast but fast enough.
Soup is just about my favorite thing in the winter. I will be examing new recipes for my next batch cook. I can’t wait until December, so I can go to the grocery again!
Same here we are always wanting to try new soup recipes in the winter. FYI.. all your comments go to my spam.. .not sure if anyone else is getting that from you but you might want to look into it. CHeers Mr.CBB
This sounds and looks REALLY good Mr CBB! As you know, I am always making some kind of soup. we are cooking a turkey breast today so later in the week I will be throwing things in a pot to make a turkey vegetable soup with red beans. It may have cost $26 for the turkey breast, but we’ll have at least 7 dinners, maybe I can stretch it to 8, for the two of us from it. I should get 1 hot turkey sandwich meal, 1 turkey tetrazzini, 4 turkey vegetable soup meals, 1 quiche with turkey and Swiss Cheese and if I have anything left… green salad with chopped turkey. Suddenly it is a lot more reasonable when you look at it that way.
You should check out Mandy at money master mom she just did a post on her turkey in the kitchen fun yesterday> I think she made like 10 meals with a 12.00 turkey.. you might like that post. This soup was perfect and we love soup in the winter with some good bread. Cheers Mary.