Smoky Pork and Bean Soup

This Smoky Pork and Bean Soup is easy, tasty and smells just wonderful as it fills your home!

I asked the meat department at my local grocery store to cut me a bone-in 3lb pork shoulder roast.  If I had enough time, I would have slow cooked this roast in a crock pot the day before, so the meat would just fall off in shreds.  But, no time so I seasoned the roast with Kosher salt, garlic powder and pepper.  Then I baked it at 350 for about two hours.

It should turn out like this.  Cut all the meat off the bone and discard the fattiest parts.  (No one wants to take a bite of fat in a soup.  Ewww.)  Cut into bite size pieces.

While the roast is cooking, you can start the beans.  You want to rinse them off first, then boil for 2 minutes, remove from heat, cover and let stand for 1 hour.

While the beans are soaking, prepare your ingredients.  The secret to this soup is Liquid Smoke.  Used sparingly in most recipes, but not this one.  I used 4 Tablespoons.  It gives the soup a warm, full, smoky flavor.

Deceptively filling and flavored with ham hocks, pork shoulder roast, fresh thyme, onion, bay leaves, carrots and liquid smoke, this soup has easily made its way into my recipe box permanently.

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