Sort and rinse the beans

• Open the bag of beans and sort through them, removing any rocks, sticks or damaged beans.
• Wash the beans several times until the water runs clean and all dirt is removed.

Prepare the beef shank

• Rinse the smoked beef shank to remove the oily film before adding it to the slow cooker.

Chop the vegetables

• Dice the onion, green bell pepper and celery.
• Mince the garlic.
• Wash and chop the collard greens.

Load the slow cooker

• Add the rinsed beans to the slow cooker.
• Add the beef shank, onion, bell pepper, celery, garlic and collard greens, tucking the greens in.

Season the soup

• Stir in the seasoning packet from the bean mix, onion powder, garlic powder, smoked paprika, black pepper and Cajun seasoning.
• Pour in the apple cider vinegar and the chicken broth.

Slow cook

• Cover and cook on low until the beans are tender and the broth is rich.

Shred the meat and serve

• Remove the beef shank, discard the bone and shred the meat.
• Stir the shredded meat back into the soup.
• Serve hot over rice with cornbread, adding hot sauce if desired.