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close up looking at ham and bean soup with garnish like cheese, parsley, and pepper.
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Ham and Bean Soup

Sometimes nostalgia just hits you in the mouth right? That's what this recipe will do for you. It's pure comfort in a bowl. Homemade ham and bean soup is hearty and full of flavor, with a surprisingly short ingredient list for all the massive flavor it packs in. It's all about the ham bone, that stuff is magical. Save yours after Easter and turn it into this soup! (I have substitutes if you don't have a ham bone, don't stress). Make this in the slow cooker or stove top!
Prep Time20 minutes
Cook Time2 hours 40 minutes
Total Time3 hours
Course: Soup
Cuisine: American
Servings: 10
Calories: 198kcal
Author: The Food Charlatan

Ingredients

  • 1 ham bone** with plenty of meat still on it. OR use 2 ham hocks, see note**
  • 10 cups water
  • 1 pound dry navy beans* rinsed
  • 2 teaspoons kosher salt use 1.5 teaspoons table salt
  • 2 tablespoons Better Than Bouillon Chicken Base or Zoup brand chicken base
  • 3 bay leaves
  • 3 cups celery chopped
  • 2 large onions
  • 6 cloves garlic smashed and minced
  • 5 sprigs fresh thyme****
  • 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
  • 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
  • 1/4 teaspoon chipotle chili powder optional
  • 5 cups water
  • 4 medium carrots peeled and shredded
  • 3 cups chopped ham from the ham bone, ham hocks, or ham steak
  • parsley chopped, to garnish (optional)
  • Parmesan cheese shredded, to garnish (optional)
  • French Bread for serving, optional, but not really

Instructions

  • Prepare your ham bone: You need a meaty ham bone for this recipe! (If you don't have one, see notes for how to use ham hocks + a ham steak.) Cut as much of the ham off the bone as you can, that is easy to get off. You want to add about 2-3 cups of meat to your soup. Chop it and set it aside to add toward the end—we don't want the tender ham getting tough from simmering so long. Add the ham bone to your largest stock pot (at least 6 quart capacity.) More of the ham will come off the bone in tender shreds as it cooks.
  • Add water and beans: Add 10 cups of water, 1 pound of dry navy beans (that have been rinsed and picked through), 2 teaspoons kosher salt***, 2 tablespoons Better Than Bouillon Chicken Base, and 3 bay leaves.
  • Simmer. Cover with a lid and bring the mixture to a boil over high heat. Keep an eye on it until it boils. Once it is at a rolling boil, lower the heat to medium low. Maintain the heat at a low simmer. The soup should have a slow bubble but nothing too wild. Simmer for 1 hour.
  • Prep the veggies. Chop 3 cups of celery. Start at the leafy end of the head of celery and just start chopping down the line, no need to pull off stalks. I love adding these celery leaves to my soup, they have great flavor. Chop the celery into smallish bite size pieces.
  • Chop 2 large onions. This will be about 3 and 1/2 cups, but you don't need to measure it. Soup will forgive you if it's not exact.
  • Smash 6 cloves of garlic with the side of a chef's knife. Peel off the paper and mince the garlic.
  • Add veggies: After the soup has simmered about one hour, add 3 cups chopped celery, 2 chopped onions, and 6 cloves minced garlic.
  • Add spices and water. Add 5 sprigs of fresh thyme PLUS 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme.**** Add 1/2 teaspoon black pepper, and 1/4 teaspoon chipotle chili powder (optional).
  • Add about 5 cups water to compensate for the water that evaporated in the first simmer.
  • Bring the soup to a boil over high heat, then lower the heat to medium low to maintain a low simmer. Simmer for about 1 hour.
  • Add the carrots: Wash and peel 4 medium carrots. Use a box grater or a food processor to shred the carrots (it will be about 2 cups shredded carrots). Add the carrots to the soup.
  • Remove the ham bone from the soup. Use a fork or knife to carefully pull away any tasty looking meat that is still on the bone. Shred and return the ham to the pot. Add any chopped ham that you set aside in the beginning. (This is when you would add a ham steak, if you used ham hocks.) The soup should have somewhere around 2-3 cups of ham in it.
  • Simmer. Once the carrots and chopped ham are in the soup, continue simmering for another 30 minutes or so. (You can turn the heat up a bit and keep an eye on it so it doesn't boil over if you are in a hurry. Turn it back down once it has a decent bubble going.)
  • The soup is done when the shredded carrots are tender, when the white beans are tender and not at all chalky, and when the ham is heated through.
  • Serve the soup with a sprinkle of fresh parsley and shredded parmesan. And a few cranks of freshly cracked black pepper! Add a hunk of French bread to everyone's bowl, if you know what's good for you. What's a bowl of soup without the bread?? Treat your people right.
  • Storage: Store this soup covered in the fridge for up to 5-7 days.
  • Freezing: The soup freezes very well! Add cooled soup to a ziplock and leave some space in the bag to let the soup expand as it freezes.
    When you want to eat, let it thaw in the fridge and then heat on low in a pot, or heat small servings in the microwave.
    To cook from frozen, add the frozen soup to a large pot with 1/2 cup water. Cover and heat on LOW, stirring every 20 minutes, until the soup is melted. Once it's melted turn the heat up to medium high until it reaches a simmer. Serve as usual!

Notes

*BEANS: dry Great Northern Beans will also work!
**Ham Bone: If you don't have a ham bone, that's okay! I often don't want to commit to eating an entire ham before I get to make this soup! Instead, add 2 ham hocks in its place. Cook as usual. Remove both ham hocks about 30 minutes before the soup is done, around the time you are adding the carrots.
Let them rest a few minutes, then use a knife to cut off any tasty looking bits of usable ham; not the thick fatty pieces, but the pink part that looks shredded and tender.  Add the meat back to the pot. Discard the bones. At the same time, chop up about 2 cups of ham from a ham steak. Add it to the soup and simmer for about 30 minutes. 
***Kosher salt is not the same as table salt. Add 1.5 teaspoons if you only have table salt.
****THYME: Add 1 teaspoon dried thyme if you don't have fresh thyme.
Slow Cooker Instructions: Add all the ingredients except the carrots to a 6 quart crock pot. If all 15 cups of water don't fit, just add as much as will comfortably fit in your crock pot.  Cook on LOW for about 8 hours. Add in the shredded carrots and slow cook for another 30-60 minutes until tender. 
If you are worried about the ham getting tough, add the ham bone or ham hocks in at the beginning, but add any chopped ham to the pot along with the carrots at the end. 

Nutrition

Calories: 198kcal | Carbohydrates: 19g | Protein: 14g | Fat: 8g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 3g | Cholesterol: 26mg | Potassium: 514mg | Fiber: 7g | Sugar: 3g | Vitamin A: 4256IU | Vitamin C: 6mg | Calcium: 81mg | Iron: 2mg