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Preparing the Beans The Night Before: Wash beans and remove any irregular beans and small stones.
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Soak the beans in 9-10 cups of water.
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Note: You can use any combination of large beans you like or have on hand.
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I prefer the pinto/kidney/black combination.
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Aromatics: Chop your onion, carrots and celery.
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Mince your garlic.
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If you are using bacon, chop this up now as well.
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In a large soup pot, saute the onions for a couple of minutes in canola oil on medium heat.
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After about two minutes, add the carrots, celery, garlic and bacon.
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Saute a few more minutes (3-5).
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Now It Becomes Soup: While the aromatics are sauteing, dump out the water from the beans, rinse them off again and remove any faulty beans you previously missed.
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They should have grown in size a great deal overnight.
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When the aromatics are ready, pour in the beans and add enough water to cover them.
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Add your ham hocks (fresh or defrosted) and add some garlic salt (2 Tbsp) to help season the broth.
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Stir everything up really good and let it cook on medium-high.
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Seasoning the Soup: Check on the soup every 20-30 minutes.
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About 40 minutes in, add the lemon juice, oregano, cayenne and pepper.
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Let it continue cooking until the beans are cooked all the way through.
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Finishing if off: When they are done, remove the ham hocks (they have done their flavorful work) and put them in a bowl.
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You can pull them apart to get the small amounts of meat in them, but I normally don't bother.
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This is when I add the chopped ham and give the soup a few more minuets to incorporate the already cooked meat.
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Take this time to taste the soup and add more spices or lemon juice.
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Serve with thick bread to soak up all of that goodness.
