What are flambo beans, anyway?
I grew the flambo beans and pumpkin in my garden, but not this year. That is, those ingredients that I put in the soup were not this year’s crop, which is part of why I am so thrilled with how well it turned out.
The flambo beans are dry beans, basically a white bean with tattoos. I have grown them a few times, but didn’t get them worked into my new raised beds the last couple of years.
Because I grew and shelled them, I was putting off disposing of this jar of older flambo beans. I have had miserable experiences trying to cook dry beans from the store that are a few years old.
The pumpkin was cooked, mashed, and frozen a couple of years ago, so easier to use than the fresh pumpkins sitting in my greenhouse. That is a lesson in getting ingredients to the point of most likely use.
I didn’t grow the pig. The ham bone was purchased at Winco.
I have an old favorite ham and bean soup (that I use nearly the same name for) that I have made for years. But it takes much more time and effort. Plus, now there are only two of us for most meals and we are frequently more spontaneous with our meals.
So, enter Instant Pot.
My recipe for this yummy soup
Here is my recipe:
- 2 cups dry flambo beans
- 6 cups water
- 1 teaspoon salt
- few shakes of ground black pepper
- 1 large yellow onion, diced
- 1 smoked ham bone
- 3 or so cups of pureed tomato (this is how I can or freeze my tomatoes, for this time around I used them straight from the freezer as a chunk.)
- 2 cups cooked and mashed pumpkin (added AFTER pressure cooking)
Here was my process:
- Put everything EXCEPT the pumpkin into the Instant Pot. Pressure cook it for 1.5 hours. Besides not wanting to over cook the pumpkin, the pot was at capacity at this point.
- Take the ham bone out and get the meat off and cut into bite size pieces. Give cooled bone to dog.
- Add mashed pumpkin, stir and heat through.
So good. So simple. I don’t have a photo because I every time it was in front of me, all I could do was think about eating it. Maybe later, when I cook it again.
Our ham bone had a decent amount of meat in it, such that there was plenty of meat in each bowl full of soup. If yours is leaner, you could buy a ham to dice and add.
How we got an Instant Pot
My husband likes to cook and is adventurous with his cooking. His mom was visiting about 4 years ago and wanted to go shopping and get a couple of things for us. I saw the Instant Pot in the store and said I thought he would enjoy it.
However, after telling his mom thanks, he seemed unimpressed. Later he told me he didn’t think he’d use it. He even suggested returning it.
I wasn’t convinced and I have been proven correct. He uses it all. the. time. He uses it for simple things like rice and wild things like elk stew. He makes really good elk stew.
I was actually leery of it, especially when I saw it spouting high pressure steam. But he has taught me how to use it and, hence, I whipped out this flambo bean and ham soup a few nights ago.
