Ham, Sweet Potato, and White Bean Soup with Bacon (Crockpot)

**Good, easy, healthy soup for a cold wintry day :)

Source: Mel's Kitchen Cafe
Yield: Serves 8

(Mel's note)  If you want to up the smoky flavor of this delicious soup, sub in smoked paprika for the regular. I've made this soup twice and the dry beans cooked perfectly tender without being presoaked, however, several people commented in this recipe that their beans weren't quite tender (especially those that live at high altitude) after slow cooking all day, so if that concerns you, soak the beans in cool water overnight before using in the recipe. A recipe like this yields the perfect style of ham for this recipe; however, if you don't have any leftover ham, your neighborhood deli is a great place to buy - have them slice the ham thick so the dices of ham are chunky rather than thin. PS: this cooked and cooled soup freezes magnificently.

Ingredients:

   (Sheri's notes in parenthesis with *)

• 1/2 cup diced yellow or white onion (*I used half a yellow onion, probably 1/2 cup it calls for (cooked this with ham), but I also added almost a TB minced dried onion too)
• 2 cloves of garlic, finely minced or pressed (*mine were large cloves)
• 2 cups cooked, diced ham (see Mel's note above)  (*I used a breakfast ham, sliced & cubed, and cooked in skillet beforehand with onions)
• 1 large sweet potato, peeled and diced  (*I scrubbed mine clean, didn't peel.."that's where all the vitamins are" :) )
• 1 pound dry white beans, like Great Northern, rinsed (see Mel's note above)  (*I did soak mine overnight, but would probably work fine without soak (just didn't want to risk beans not being done))
• 1 1/2 teaspoons paprika (see Mel's note above)  (*I used regular paprika but now have smoked and want to try it with that too)




1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 8 cups low-sodium chicken broth (*I used 2 cans then 4 cups water with 4 bouillon cubes to equal 8)
• 4-6 slices bacon or turkey bacon, diced  (Good with or without bacon)

Directions:

Combine all the ingredients except the bacon in a 5-quart slow cooker and cook on low for 8-9 hours (see the note about presoaking the dry beans).
Carefully puree 1/2 to 3/4 of the soup in a blender (hot soups like to expand in the blender so only fill the blender halfway and process in batches, if needed). I don't love the idea of pureeing ham, call me crazy, so I tried my best to scoop out ladles of soup to blend that were free of ham. Alternately, you could use an immersion blender and get in there with it and go to town (leaving the soup with as much texture as you desire).
Add additional salt and pepper to taste, if needed.
Cook the bacon in a hot skillet until crisp; drain on paper towels. Serve the soup with crumbled bacon on top.
1. Sheri's note: puree soup, stir, and turn crockpot off.  It's good to let it sit, cool, and thicken for an hour if you have the time to do it.