Old-Fashioned Ham and Bean Soup Recipe
Ham and bean soup recipe simmered with a leftover ham bone, dried navy beans, carrots, and celery until the beans go soft and the broth thickens.
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This ham and bean soup recipe is the one that shows up the week after a holiday, when there’s a picked-over ham bone in the fridge and nobody wants another ham sandwich. Dried navy beans, a pot of chopped vegetables, and a couple of hours on low turn that bone into soup that tastes like it took all day. It sort of did. Almost none of it was work.
Soak the beans the night before. It’s the one step that can’t be hurried, and skipping it means either chalky beans or a four-hour simmer. Eight hours in a bowl of cold water on the counter and they cook in about half the time.
The other move is mashing about a cup of the cooked beans against the side of the pot at the end. It thickens the broth into something that coats the spoon, with no flour, no dairy, and no second pan.
Why You’ll Love This Ham and Bean Soup Recipe
- It’s built on a leftover. The ham bone you were about to throw out is the most valuable thing in the pot.
- Cheap by any measure. A pound of dried navy beans runs about two dollars and stretches to eight bowls with the ham.
- Thick broth, no roux. Mashing a cup of the beans back into the pot does what a flour thickener would, with nothing added.
- Better the next day. The beans keep drinking up the broth overnight and the smoke settles into everything.
Ham and Bean Soup Ingredients
A meaty ham bone is what gives this soup its smoke and its body. If you don’t have one, a large smoked ham hock from the meat counter does the same job for a couple of dollars. Diced ham on its own still makes a decent soup, just a thinner one.
- 1 lb dried navy beans, picked over and rinsed
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 large yellow onion, diced
- 3 medium carrots, peeled and sliced
- 3 ribs celery, sliced
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 meaty ham bone (or 1 large smoked ham hock)
- 8 cups chicken broth
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 tsp dried thyme
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
- 2 cups diced cooked ham
- Salt, to taste
- 2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley, for serving
Recipe Variations
- Use great northern beans or a mixed dried bean blend in place of the navy beans. Both cook in about the same time and give you a slightly bigger bean on the spoon.
- No ham bone? Use a smoked turkey wing or leg instead. It’s already fully cooked, so simmer it the same way and make sure everything is heated through to 165°F before serving.
- Make it in a slow cooker. Sauté the vegetables on the stove first, then add everything except the diced ham and cook on low for 8 hours. Stir the diced ham in for the last 30 minutes so it heats through to 165°F without falling apart.
How to Make Ham and Bean Soup
- Soak the beans overnight: Put the navy beans in a large bowl and cover them with cold water by 2 inches. Leave them on the counter for 8-12 hours, then drain and rinse. In a hurry? Cover the beans with water in the pot, boil 2 minutes, pull them off the heat, and let them stand covered for 1 hour before draining. Soaking is hands-off and isn’t counted in the times below.
- Soften the vegetables: Heat the olive oil in a large Dutch oven or soup pot over medium heat. Add the onion, carrots, and celery and cook for 7-8 minutes, until the onion turns soft and translucent. Stir in the garlic and cook 1 minute more.
- Add the bone and the broth: Nestle the ham bone into the pot. Add the drained beans, chicken broth, bay leaves, thyme, black pepper, and red pepper flakes if using, then bring it up to a boil.
- Simmer low and slow: Turn the heat down, cover, and simmer for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, stirring every 30 minutes so nothing sticks to the bottom. The beans are done when you can crush one against the roof of your mouth with no chalky center left. Older beans can take up to 30 minutes longer, so taste one before you call it.
- Pull the meat off the bone: Lift the ham bone out onto a plate and let it cool enough to handle. Pull off any meat, chop it, and stir it back into the pot. Discard the bone, the fat, and the bay leaves.
- Add the diced ham: Stir in the 2 cups of diced ham and simmer uncovered for 10 minutes, until the soup is steaming and the ham is heated through to 165°F.
- Thicken and season: Mash about 1 cup of the beans against the side of the pot with the back of a spoon or a potato masher, then stir them through. Taste and add salt now rather than earlier, since the ham and the broth both bring their own. Top the bowls with parsley.
Recipe FAQs
Do I Have to Soak the Beans for This Ham and Bean Soup Recipe?
It saves you real time. Soaked navy beans go tender in about 90 minutes, while unsoaked ones can take 3 hours or more and cook unevenly. If you forgot, use the quick-soak method: boil 2 minutes, rest covered 1 hour, then drain.
Can I Use Canned Beans Instead of Dried?
Yes. Use four 15-ounce cans of navy beans, drained and rinsed, and cut the simmer to 45 minutes since you’re only building flavor at that point. The broth comes out thinner, so mash a little more of the beans at the end.
What If I Don’t Have a Ham Bone?
A smoked ham hock is the closest substitute and costs a couple of dollars at the meat counter. Failing that, use 3 cups of diced ham total and add 1/2 teaspoon of smoked paprika to make up for the missing smoke.
Why Are My Beans Still Hard After Two Hours?
Usually old beans, hard water, or acid in the pot. Beans more than a year old may never fully soften. And hold off on tomatoes, vinegar, or anything acidic until the beans are already tender, because acid keeps the skins firm.
How Do I Make Ham and Bean Soup Thicker?
Mash a cup of the cooked beans against the pot and stir them back in, or blend a ladleful with an immersion blender and return it. Both thicken the broth using nothing but what’s already in there.
Cooking Tips
- Salt at the very end. A ham bone, cured ham, and store-bought broth all bring their own sodium, and a pot that tasted right at hour one can taste like a salt lick at hour two.
- Buy dried beans somewhere that turns over stock quickly. Beans get harder with age, and a bag that sat in a warehouse for two years is the most common reason a bean soup never softens.
- Skim the foam during the first ten minutes of the simmer. It’s starch and protein coming off the beans, and lifting it out gives you a cleaner-tasting broth.
Storage and Freezing
To store: Refrigerate in an airtight container for up to 4 days. It thickens a lot overnight as the beans keep absorbing, so thin it with broth or water when you reheat.
To freeze: It freezes very well for up to 3 months. Leave an inch of headspace in the container and thaw overnight in the fridge before reheating.
To reheat: Warm on the stove over medium-low for about 10 minutes with a splash of broth, stirring, until it’s steaming at 165°F. Single bowls go in the microwave in 1-minute bursts, stirred in between.
How to Serve Ham and Bean Soup
Ham and Bean Soup wants cornbread more than anything else, though a crusty baguette or a stack of buttered saltines does fine. Something sharp and vinegary on the side cuts through the smoke, so a simple slaw or a few pickled red onions on the table are worth the two minutes. Serve it in wide shallow bowls so it cools fast enough for kids to start eating.
Loved This Recipe?
Ham and Bean Soup turns a leftover bone and a bag of dried beans into eight bowls of dinner, which is about the best return a pot ever gives you.
Leave a star rating in the comments below, it helps other people find this recipe. Made it? Tag @allwellfed on Instagram, I love seeing this one in other people’s kitchens.
Old-Fashioned Ham and Bean Soup
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 lb dried navy beans picked over and rinsed
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 large yellow onion diced
- 3 medium carrots peeled and sliced
- 3 ribs celery sliced
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 1 meaty ham bone or 1 large smoked ham hock
- 8 cups chicken broth
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 tsp dried thyme
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes optional
- 2 cups diced cooked ham
- salt to taste
- 2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley for serving
Instructions
- Soak the beans overnight: Put the navy beans in a large bowl and cover them with cold water by 2 inches. Leave them on the counter for 8-12 hours, then drain and rinse. In a hurry? Cover the beans with water in the pot, boil 2 minutes, pull them off the heat, and let them stand covered for 1 hour before draining. Soaking is hands-off and isn’t counted in the times below.
- Soften the vegetables: Heat the olive oil in a large Dutch oven or soup pot over medium heat. Add the onion, carrots, and celery and cook for 7-8 minutes, until the onion turns soft and translucent. Stir in the garlic and cook 1 minute more.
- Add the bone and the broth: Nestle the ham bone into the pot. Add the drained beans, chicken broth, bay leaves, thyme, black pepper, and red pepper flakes if using, then bring it up to a boil.
- Simmer low and slow: Turn the heat down, cover, and simmer for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, stirring every 30 minutes so nothing sticks to the bottom. The beans are done when you can crush one against the roof of your mouth with no chalky center left. Older beans can take up to 30 minutes longer, so taste one before you call it.
- Pull the meat off the bone: Lift the ham bone out onto a plate and let it cool enough to handle. Pull off any meat, chop it, and stir it back into the pot. Discard the bone, the fat, and the bay leaves.
- Add the diced ham: Stir in the 2 cups of diced ham and simmer uncovered for 10 minutes, until the soup is steaming and the ham is heated through to 165°F.
- Thicken and season: Mash about 1 cup of the beans against the side of the pot with the back of a spoon or a potato masher, then stir them through. Taste and add salt now rather than earlier, since the ham and the broth both bring their own. Top the bowls with parsley.
Notes
If you made this, leave a star rating down in the comments. It takes about ten seconds, and it’s how other cooks decide whether a recipe is worth trying.
