Wok's For Dinner: Ham It Up White Bean Soup

I know what you're thinking. And you are right. That is definitely not ham in the soup! I bought what I thought was a ham, but when I opened it up, I discovered that it was actually a pork roast! Definitely not the same. But I figured I'd give it a shot in the recipe and see how it turned out. The pork roast was large, so I was able to split it up into more than one meal. I used some of the pork roast in the Saucy Scalloped Potatoes I made recently, and those turned out really good, so I thought it wouldn't hurt to try it in tonight's soup. I found the original recipe in a free holiday recipe book, Full of Flavor: Your Guide to Catering to a Holiday Houseful, from Carnation. As I usually do, I tweaked the recipe and changed some of it around (pretty obvious, especially because I used pork roast instead of ham!! :) .

Ham (Pork Roast) It Up White Bean Soup

Ingredients:
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
1 Tbsp garlic powder
2 cups homemade chicken broth
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 can (12oz) evaporated milk
1 can (15.5oz) Great Northern beans, undrained
1 1/2 cups cooked pork roast, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 sm. pkg frozen peas
1/4 tsp ground black pepper

Directions:
Heat oil in Dutch oven or 6qt saucepan over medium heat. Add onion; cook, stirring occasionally, for 2-3 minutes or until onion is tender. Add chicken broth and flour; whisk mixture for 1-2 minutes to incorporate the flour. Stir in evaporated milk. Cook, stirring constantly, until mixture comes to a boil. Add beans, pork roast and peas. Heat through. Season to taste with pepper.

If freezing: To make this into a freeze meal, the easy thing to do is to use your cooked pork roast. After cooking your roast, cut it into 1/2 inch pieces. Place in quart-size freezer bag, squeeze out the air, seal, lay flat and freeze. Thaw 24 hours in refrigerator and use in your soup as directed.

I loved the broth, but it could have used a little salt. I didn't add any since the recipe didn't say to. But the original recipe used ham, which is by nature usually salty, so this would have been a completely different meal with ham instead of the pork roast. My daughter really loved her soup and raved with each bite she took. Hubs had seconds, and even my son ate his soup without complaint. So I guess it was a winner with the family!