Southwestern Black Bean and Ham Soup

I love making soups and eating soups in the winter time! It's always a good thing when the weather is cold. We had ham for our Christmas dinner (I know I'm slow posting this recipe, life gets way too busy sometimes) so I had a really meaty ham hock to use up. I ran across this recipe here (I love the prepared pantry) but I added some things and more broth than the original asked for. It was soooo good! I love ham and bean soup but usually make ham and navy bean soup. This was a nice twist to change things up a bit. I garnished with grated cheese, a dollop of sour cream and a handful of Fritos! Sooooo good! If you have a ham hock in the freezer I suggest making this soup. YUMMO!

Southwestern Black Bean and Ham Soup
Ingredients:

1 large meaty ham hock
4 cups chicken broth
1/2  stalk of celery
1/4 onion, (just a chunk of onion to flavor broth)
Place the ham hock, broth, piece of onion,and piece of celery in a large soup pot. Bring to a boil then turn down and cover. Let this simmer for about an hour or until the ham is falling off of the bone. Remove the ham hock from the broth and set aside. I strain the broth just in case some of the ham bone has broken off into it and it removes the onion and celery that has been  over cooked. Pour the broth back into the soup pot. If there are any good pieces of ham in the strainer put that back in the broth too, and throw the rest away.
Now make your soup by adding the following:

1 large onion, diced
2-3 stalks celery diced
1 or 2  large carrots, diced
1 teaspoon garlic
6 cups water
2 (15-ounce) cans diced tomatoes
3/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon smokey paprika
1 (4-ounce) can peeled, chopped, mild green chilies
Bring this to a simmer and cook for about 20 minutes or until your celery and carrots are tender. 
Then add:
4 (15-ounce) cans of black beans, drained
Fresh cilantro (about 2 Tablespoons of chopped cilantro that you find in the tubes in the produce dept.)
salt to taste
Simmer this for another 10 minutes.
 Serve in individual bowls and garnish with the following:
Grated Cheese
Sour Cream
Frito corn chips

Enjoy!