Ham Bone Soup

This is a very easy soup to make. It is a long simmering soup about 9 hours total.
Start it first thing, early in the morning and plan on eating around 6PM or so.
It is a very yummy tasting soup.
This recipe makes a lot of soup but you can freeze it.
Don't forget crusty rolls or better yet a dark rye bread with butter.
Yummmm!
Enjoy!

What you need to cook in: AKA Utensils
1 really big soup pot with lid.
1 heavy, long handled spoon, wooden or metal, to stir with.

What you need to cook with: AKA Ingredients
• 3 Cups of dried bean soup mixture, soaked in cold water overnight
• 1 ham bone
• 2 1/2 cups cubed ham
• 2 large onions, coarsely chopped
• 3 stalks celery, coarsely chopped
• 5 large carrots, coarsely chopped
• 2 cans of mushrooms
• 1 large can diced spiced tomatoes (if possible)with liquid or stewed tomatoes.
• 1 450 ML bottle of veggie cocktail
• 3 cups vegetable broth
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 2 tablespoons of chopped or minced garlic in oil
• 3 Shakes of Barbados Pepper Sauce
• 3 bay leaves
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 3 tablespoons lemon juice
• 7 cups low fat, low sodium chicken broth
(Or make your own with chicken bullion cubes or dry mix)
• 1 teaspoon salt if needed(add to taste near the end of cooking)
• 2 cups kernel corn, frozen or canned
• 2 cups frozen baby Lima beans

What you need to do: AKA Directions
Take the soaked beans out of the overnight water and place them into a large pot.
Fill with enough clean water to cover by about 1 inch.
Bring to a boil, then simmer over low for 30 minutes.
Drain the water out. Leave the beans in.
Add the ham bone, chopped ham, onion, celery, mushrooms, carrots, garlic, tomatoes, vegetable juice, and vegetable broth. Season with Worcestershire sauce, Dijon mustard, pepper sauce, bay leaves, pepper, and lemon juice.
Pour in enough of the chicken broth to cover the ingredients.
Simmer over low heat, lid on pot and stirring occasionally, for about 8 hours.
Add more chicken broth as needed throughout the day.
Remove the ham bone.
Season soup with more salt if needed.
Add more pepper or whatever you think it needs at this point.
The soup should suit your taste.
Continue to simmer for a couple more hours.
30 minutes before soup is ready to be served add the frozen/canned corn and the Lima beans.
Remove bay leaves before serving.

I didn't add potatoes but you could if you wanted to for the last hour of cooking. You would want them diced not left in large chunks.
I really liked the Lima beans and corn added to the soup but it would be just as good without them. You could also add frozen green beans if you wish. Also if you don't like mushrooms leave them out. It won't ruin the soup. You really can't do anything wrong with this soup. Spinach....well if not too much why not? Too much though and the flavour might be to overpowering. I would use frozen chopped spinach if I was going to add it.