vegetable and ham soup

I made a vegetable and ham soup to eat as a snack throughout the week.  Here's the recipe:

1 lb extra lean turkey ham, cubed.
3 leeks chopped
2 lbs mushrooms of various kinds (cremini works well) separate the stalks and slice the caps
2 cans of black beans half mushed
1/3 cup olive oil
1/2 lb carrots chopped
a bunch of celery (one plant, I don't know what to call it.) chopped except for 3 stalks sliced
1/2 of a large white onion or a whole small one chopped
Whatever other vegetables you want to get rid of - chopped
2 tsp kosher salt
Fresh herbs like rosemary, thyme, and such. whatever you have around or tastes good.

Take the mushrooms and clean them off with a damp towel.  Never submerge mushrooms in water - it washes off the flavor as well as the dirt.  As your cleaning them, separate the stems.

In a large pot, heat 2 1/2 - 3 quarts of water to a boil.

Separate 3 good stalks from the bunch of celery.  Take the rest of the celery, mushroom stalks, onion, carrots, and other vegetables, and chop them up.  I use a food processor.  You don't need to puree them or even do a good job chopping them.  The important thing is that they are small pieces but not small enough to go through a strainer.

Put the mix of chopped vegetables and mushroom stalks into the boiling water.  Also, put the herbs in.  Let that boil for 30 minutes.  Enjoy the smell.

Pour the mixture through a strainer.  Set aside the broth.  Discard the rest.

Chop the leeks.  The dark green parts are inedible, as is the root part.  Take the rest of the light green, yellow, and white parts, and chop them into small pieces.  Put the pot on medium high heat, and heat the olive oil.  Add the turkey ham and brown it.  Then dump the chopped leeks into the pot, and saute until the leeks get semi-transparent.

Slice the mushroom caps and the 3 stalks of celery and add them to the pot with the leeks and ham.  Stir to mix the ingredients up, and let the mushrooms brown a little.  Then add the broth.

Strain the black beans, and mush about half of them. This will make a thin soup.  Mush all of them for a thicker soup.  Add the beans to the pot and stir well to dissolve the mushed beans.

Let it simmer on a low heat for about 30 minutes (until the celery is tender).

Add Salt and Pepper to taste and serve hot.