Recipe: White Bean Soup with Ham Hock and Swiss Chard
Serves 5
Ingredients
- 2c. White beans (navy, Lima or gigante)
- 1 ½ qt. Chicken stock or vegetable stock
- 2 Smoked ham hocks
- 3 Carrots - ¼ in. diced
- 1 Head celery- ¼ in. diced
- 2 Yellow onions- diced
- 1 Bunch Thyme- leaves removed and lightly chopped
- 2 Bay leaves
- 1 Bunch Green Swiss Chard
- 1 oz- Kosher salt
- Ground black pepper to taste
- Soak beans covered in cold water over night. Place ham hocks in stock and bring to a boil, let simmer for 30 minutes. Add beans, vegetables, thyme, salt and bay leaves to stock.
- Bring to boil and simmer for one hour or until beans are cooked through. Wash chard and remove leaves from ribs. Cut the chard in to ¼ in. ribbons. Add to soup and bring back to a simmer for 20 minutes.
- Remove ham hocks from pot and cool. Once cool remove all meat from hocks and dice to ¼ in. Add meat back to soup.
- Season with salt and pepper as needed.
- Soup is best served the next day.
- Garnish with chopped parsley
Russell's Tips for making the perfect White Bean Soup:
Tip#1
Pick over your beans before starting: Place beans in a colander and remove any pebbles, twigs, etc., and any cracked beans. Rinse.
Tip#2
Option to soaking the beans overnight: Rinse and cover with water in a covered saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Boil 2 minutes. Remove from heat, let stand 1 hour.
Tip# 3
Instead of a knife, you can use kitchen scissors to remove the ribs of the chard and slice into ribbons.
Tip#4
Soup is best served the next day. For best results, place finished soup in the refrigerator overnight and serve reheated the next day.
About Russell Rummer:
Inspired by extensive pan-European culinary research, Russell Rummer has spent the last nine years in the kitchens of some of the top Bay Area restaurants before helming the Sellers Markets restaurants as Chef and General Manger. Rummer received a Bachelor of Science in Hospitality with an emphasis on menu planning and food costs in 1998.
He received his culinary education at the Johnson and Wales University in Miami, FL with a Culinary Arts degree in 1999. Heading to the West Coast, Rummer became Executive Sous Chef at MC2 under Chef Todd Davies in 2002, and perfected the art of seasonal menu planning as Chef de Cuisine at both Absinthe (under Chef Ross Brown until 2004) and Acme Chop House (under Bay Area star Chef Traci Des Jardins until 2006).
At the end of 2006, Rummer took over the kitchens at Roots Restaurant and Daffodil Restaurant, both at The Orchard Hotel in San Francisco, where he spent almost two years operating the hotel's food and beverages and developing the menus. Rummer became Chef and General Manager for the Sellers Markets fast-casual/sustainable chain restaurants in October of 2008, putting his production, hospitality and menu planning skills to their best use.
For more information, visit www.sellersmarkets.com
