Ham and Bean Soup
Yield: 8 servings
This hearty, lightly creamy soup recipe is loaded with smoky ham, white beans, and fresh veggies. It’s an easy, cozy one-pot meal that's perfect for chilly nights!
Ingredients
- ¼ cup unsalted butter
- 2 cups ½"-diced carrots
- 1½ cups ½"-diced yellow onion
- 1 cup ½"-diced celery
- 4 large cloves garlic, minced
- 8 cups low-sodium chicken stock
- 4 cups ½"-diced smoked ham (about 20-22 ounces total)
- 1 each smoked ham bone
- 3 cans (15.8 ounces each) Great Northern white beans, drained and rinsed very well
- 1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves
- 1 tablespoon finely chopped rosemary
- 2 dried bay leaves
- ½ teaspoon Morton kosher salt, more or less, to taste
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
- Set a 6-quart soup pot over medium/medium-low heat. Add butter; let melt.
- Stir carrots, onion, and celery into melted butter. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Then stir in garlic and cook for 1 more minute.
- Add chicken stock, diced ham, and ham bone. Stir to combine.
- Turn heat up to medium-high and bring just to a light boil, stirring regularly. Once lightly boiling, immediately turn heat down to medium-low/low and stir in the beans, thyme, rosemary, and bay leaves.
- Let soup simmer for 25-30 minutes. A longer simmer adds flavor to the broth and some thickening power from the collagen in the ham bone.
- Taste test and season with salt and pepper as desired. Serve hot.
Notes
Beans: Navy and cannellini beans are good substitutes for the Great Northern variety.
If you don't have ham and a ham bone: This recipe uses leftover cooked ham from a bone-in ham (so easy to make with my 2-ingredient Crockpot Ham recipe). If you don't have leftover ham, you can use 1-2 (depending on size) bone-in ham steaks. Just dice the meat and add the bone(s) to the soup to build flavor and add some thickening.
If you'd like your soup a bit thicker: Remove some of the beans (I recommend starting with ¼ to ½ cup) from the soup at the end of the cooking, then mash with a potato masher or a fork. Or add them to a small bowl along with some soup broth, and use an immersion blender to make a very smooth puree (my preferred method). Then stir the puree into the soup to add texture and thickening to the broth. Alternatively, you can thicken the soup by simmering for a longer time, with the lid off, until the broth reduces to your desired thickness.
Nutrition Information:
Calories: 395kcal Carbohydrates: 45g Protein: 32g Fat: 11g Saturated Fat: 5g Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g Monounsaturated Fat: 4g Trans Fat: 0.2g Cholesterol: 56mg Sodium: 1289mg Potassium: 1215mg Fiber: 10g Sugar: 3g Vitamin A: 5632IU Vitamin C: 9mg Calcium: 139mg Iron: 5mg
Nutrition information is automatically calculated by Spoonacular. I am not a nutritionist and cannot guarantee accuracy. If your health depends on nutrition information, please calculate again with your own favorite calculator.