Marmie's Blackbean With Ham And Vegetable Soup.

Total Time: 1 hr Preparation Time: 10 mins Cook Time: 50 mins

Ingredients

• 2 cups ham, leftover baked ham
• 1 cup ham drippings (add slowly to taste as the juices are salty)
• 1 potato, red medium in size diced
• 7 carrots, - small to medium in size sliced thinly
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 3 -4 hot peppers, fresh chopped very finely (i used the seeds too)
• 2 (14 ounce) cans chopped tomatoes (i used 1 with basil, garlic and oregano and 1 can green pepper celery and onion)
• 1/2 cup frozen spinach, 'chopped nuggets' (about 4)
• 3 cups chicken broth (i boil my leftover roasting chickens with vegs and onions and seasonings, de bone it and freeze it i)
• 1/2 cup dry lentils, cleaned and rinsed (black or brown)
• 1 (28 ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained

Recipe

• 1 in a large soup pot pour in 1/4 cup of the ham broth, add carrot and onion, simmer for 5 minute.
• 2 add everything else except the spinach, ham and canned black beans, simmer for 30 min untill carrot and lentils are tender.
• 3 add 1/2 the can of black beans to soup pot.
• 4 blend with hand blender (ie: braun) just slightly, to thicken the broth but not make soup mash.
• 5 add remaining black beans, ham and spinach and simmer another 10 min or so to heat through.
• 6 add pepper to taste. (though i added no spices as the canned tomatoes were spiced and the peppers offered a nice zip, as well the ham is plenty salty!
• 7 i served it with corn bread and it was a really simple rainy summer night kind of meal! garnish with fresh parm.
• 8 i hope you enjoy it as well.