This type of ham and bean soup isn’t as bland as some others and doesn’t need as much salt to be tasty. It has an incredible flavor.
| Prep Time: | 30 mins |
| Cook Time: | 6 hrs |
| Additional Time: | 8 hrs |
| Total Time: | 14 hrs 30 mins |
| Servings: | 8 |
| Yield: | 8 servings |
Ingredients
- 1 pound dried Great Northern beans, sorted and rinsed
- 4 cups water
- ¼ cup celery, chopped
- 1 small onion, chopped
- 2 bay leaves
- ¼ teaspoon ground cumin
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon dried parsley
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 leeks (bulb only), cut in half lengthwise
- 1 pound cooked ham, cut into bite-size pieces
- 5 slices bacon
- 4 cups chicken stock
- 1 pinch sea salt to taste
- 1 pinch fresh ground black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Place the beans into a large container and cover with several inches of cool water; let stand 8 hours to overnight. Drain and rinse before using.
- Combine the soaked beans, 4 cups of water, celery, onion, bay leaves, cumin, garlic powder, and parsley into a slow cooker.
- Melt the butter with the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat; cook and stir the leeks in the butter mixture until tender and the smaller pieces start to brown, 8 to 10 minutes. Transfer the leeks to the slow cooker. In the same pan, cook and stir the ham until the edges start to brown; stir into the soup. Place the bacon into the hot skillet, and pan-fry until the bacon is crisp, about 10 minutes. Cut the bacon into bite-size pieces and stir into the soup. Pour the chicken stock into the hot skillet, and stir to dissolve any brown flavor bits from the skillet; pour the chicken stock into the soup. Season with sea salt and pepper.
- Set the cooker to Low cook the soup until the beans are very tender, 6 to 8 hours. Roughly mash about half the beans with a potato masher to thicken the soup.
- Feel free to play with the seasoning amounts to fit your personal choice. Of course, it can be cooked on the stove top for a shorter period of time. I find that the little extra effort of stir-frying the leeks, ham, and bacon brings a richness to this dish and is more than worth it.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 459 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 40 g |
| Cholesterol | 48 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 12 g |
| Protein | 26 g |
| Saturated Fat | 8 g |
| Sodium | 945 mg |
| Sugars | 3 g |
| Fat | 22 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
The recipe is great. We loved it. The only thing I changed was I substituted 1/2 cup Garlic Parmesan Sauce in place of the garlic powder and used cilantro instead of parsley. YUM!
I’ve made soup using this recipe several times and I wouldn’t change a thing! The aroma, texture and flavor of this soup has placed it as the top recipe to go to on a cold weather day to warm the tummy!
Loved this soup! I followed another reviewer’s suggestion and added potato flakes to thicken the soup instead of mashing some of the beans. I also included a ham bone left over from Christmas for extra flavor (you could also use ham hocks) Very hearty meal!
I made it the quick way, using reviewer Maria Joy Schrock’s revision, using the same ingredients as listed.This is the best ham and beans recipe! I don’t even normally like beans that much. I will make this again
Had to make this with what I had on hand, and it came out great. My changes: soaked the beans in hot water for about 3 hours. Used 1 full pound of bacon. (There is no such thing as too much bacon!) Threw 2 smoked ham hocks into the soup at the very beginning. Added 2 large diced carrots for a little color and flavor. Doubled the onion and celery. Used all chicken broth in place of the water. Cooked on the stove top for quicker cooking, brought everything to a boil and then simmered about 3 hours. At the end, made a roux out of about 4 Tbl bacon grease and 4 Tbl flour, then incorporated into the soup to make it thicker. Diced up the pork hock meat and added that as well. My kids, who don’t normally like bean soup, said this was a winner!
Excellent recipe which I recommend. It makes a lot of delicious soup. As I had no ham bone I used diced ham slices and other than that followed recipe.
I made it this weekend and followed the recipe exactly. The flavors were great. I may have stirred it a bit too much so it came out thicker than i would have liked but taste was great.
We REALLY liked this soup. I did make a bit of a hybrid based on the ingredients I had and on the suggestions of others in the reviews. Anything you make close to this formula should be a winner.
WOW! Incredible flavor. Made as directed. Like some, I prefer a thicker soup. Will definitely make again, but double the beans. Enough flavor profile to handle the more heartiness of extra beans.
Oh my, this is really good ham and bean soup. I followed the recipe as shown although I thought I had put to much salt but turned out it was perfect. I soaked the beans for over 8 hrs and cooked it for 5 and half hours after that. I give the recipe a 5 rating cause I love the taste. Just came out perfect so thank you Roxanne Dalton for sharing this delicious recipe.
I made this recipe in my Instant Pot, omitting the bacon. I cooked everything on high for 45 mins and did the natural release (did NOT soak the beans) and in an hour had awesome soup. This will be the only ham and bean soup recipe I will ever use moving forward. Thanks for sharing!!
If u follow all the steps as I did. You have a awesome Ham and Bean Soup As my family absolutely loved It was well worth it.
We loved this soup!! We’re big fans of ham and bean soup and this one was a favorite. It was a little oily for us and so I will cut back on the bacon or butter next time. Grandma asked for a little noodle and so I did add some egg noodles to the last step before slow cooking. We also like creamy ham and bean and so I added a small amount of half and half at the end of cook time. Sounds like I made a lot of changes but the basic recipe is a winner and didn’t call for any changes to taste great.
Great recipe, l loved how it turned out
Delicious
Bursting with flavor is right! Thank you Roxane for a great recipe. I ran across this recipe while looking for an Instant Pot recipe for a ham bone soup stock. It sounded interesting. I had no navy beans and intended to use lentils instead. The ham bone was from a generic Wal-Mart hardwood smoked ham. I adapted this recipe for my Instant Pot by putting the ham bone with plenty of meat still attached, into the pot and added the vegetables without any precooking. I used two cloves of crushed fresh garlic instead of powdered, I included the leaves from the celery, I bumped the powdered cumin from 1/4 tsp. to 2 tsp. I had no bacon so I used 2 Tbs. of bacon fat and omitted the butter and the olive oil. I SET ASIDE the diced up ham to be added after the stock was made. After adding the chicken stock, I added water to fill just below the maximum fill line in the Instant Pot. I used high pressure for 2 hours and used the natural release method to relieve the pressure. When the pressure was released, I removed just the bones and the leek residue and transferred everything to a larger soup kettle. The stock had a very interesting smoky aroma and the flavor was incredible! To finish off the soup, I added two large peeled carrots (coarsely chopped ), 1 lb. of lentils (rinsed) and the 1 lb. of cooked ham in bite-size pieces. I simmered until the lentils were tender. I make a lot of soup and have been doing so for 50 years but I’m very new to the Instant Pot and always looking for tip
Absolutely delicious!!
This was good- 3.5
I am making this recipe again and was just updating up my shopping list . I used four cloves of fresh garlic, minced and sauteed instead of garlic powder. Did not have leeks last time so just left them out, will be interesting to see what difference they make this time. Overall, there is a lot of flavor here, good texture and it’s filling. Just the thing to have on hand going into the colder weather.
I made it according to the recipe…the only thing I would change in making it again is to use less liquid. The flavor was wonderful!
I followed all the steps, but put everything in an enameled cast iron pot on the stove top. I let it simmer with gentle bubbles for 1.5 hours and the beans reached the “very tender” stage. It’s a good recipe. The browning of the meat and the broth to deglaze important