Ham and Bean Soup
A best ever recipe for Ham and Bean Soup! This is my all-time favorite recipe for using up leftover ham. Your family will love this hearty and delicious soup.
Whenever I cook a ham I always buy a large one just to have extra ham to make this savory bean soup recipe. Although boneless ham meat will work for this recipe, you will not get the same rich flavorful broth that a ham bone, ham hock or ham shank will add.
Can you make this recipe in a slow cooker or instant pot?
Absolutely, the cooking time if using your instant pot will be about 50 minutes. Cooking time for the slow cooker will be 8-10 hours on low or 4-5 hours on high.
Ingredients for ham and bean soup
Beans – I prefer to use dried Great Northern beans or Navy beans, but you can also use dried white beans or Cannellini beans.
Ham and ham bone – leftover ham has the best flavor, but any kind of ham will work.
Chicken stock or chicken broth – Try my Homemade Chicken Stock recipe or use your favorite brand and adjust the salt to taste.
Vegetables – celery, carrots, onion, and garlic.
Can you add potatoes? Potatoes do not work well in this recipe as they become too mushy. Try my Ham and Potato soup recipe instead.
Seasonings – fresh or dried thyme, parsley and ground black pepper. Add salt as needed.
Method for preparing the soup
How to thicken ham and bean soup
When the bean soup has almost finished cooking, remove about 1 cup of the soup. Puree using an immersion blender and stir back into the soup.
I prefer the texture and have always soaked my beans for at least 8 hours or overnight. Alberta Pulse Growers has some great information about preparing dry beans. Whatever method you use be sure to discard any broken or shriveled beans. Store your beans in an airtight container in a cool, dry place and use within one year. Old beans can stay hard and chewy even after cooking.
How to store leftover soup.
Leftover ham and bean soup stores in the refrigerator for 3-4 days and in the freezer for up to 3 months.
The Best Homemade Soup Recipes
As the weather turns cold and you start to crave comfort food, warm up with some of these delicious homemade soup recipes.
This post was originally published April 26,2024. Occasionally I update with fresh tips, content, and photos.
Ham and Bean Soup
Ingredients
- 4 cups leftover ham cubed
- 1 ham bone
- 2 cups dry Great Northern beans or Navy beans
- 2 cups celery chopped
- 2 cups carrots chopped
- 1 large onion finely chopped
- 3 cloves garlic finely minced
- 4 sprigs fresh thyme or 2 teaspoons dry
- 1/4 cup fresh parsley or 1 tablespoon dry
- 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
- 8-9 cups chicken stock or chicken broth
- 1 tablespoon olive oil for sautéing vegetables
- salt to taste
Instructions
- Prepare the dried beans by soaking them in cold water for 8-10 hours or overnight. Drain and rinse, discarding any broken or discoloured beans.
- In large Dutch oven, heat oil and sauté celery, carrots, onions and garlic until tender.
- Stir in the chicken stock, ham bone and ham.
- Add the beans, parsley, thyme and pepper.
- Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer for 2-3 hours until beans are tender.
- Chop up large pieces of ham before serving
- Once the soup has almost finished cooking, remove about 1 cup of the soup. Puree using an immersion blender and stir back into the soup.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Hi Mary, the ham bone adds great flavour to the soup. It is removed when soup has finished cooking. Using the ham bone and leftover ham, which I always cut most of the fat off, doesn’t cause excess fat. If you find fat build up, you can always skim it off.
HAM N BEAN SOUP ALMOST READY. CANT WAIT FOR DINNER MAKN CRESCENTS W GARLIC N HERB CHEESE SPREAD. AS A DIPPER FOR SOUP.
Made this soup today and am very happy how it turned out. I didn’t have a hambone but did add some really good ham. Perfect, hearty soup on a chilly February day in Michigan. YUM!!
Thank you Mary Kay, nothing beats a great soup on those cold winter days.
Very good. I didn’t have dry beans so I used canned. Just added towards the end to heat through. I also added a cubed sweet potato for some more thickening. Broth had a wonderful taste and nice that it wasn’t a heavy soup.
Does this freeze well? Thank you; looks good!
Yes it freezes well. Beans may not be as firm, but still very tasty.
Terrific real world recipe. Only difference when I made it was that I used 2 meaty ham hocks. I removed the meat from the bones and added that to the finished soup. This is a solid recipe that can/should be passed on to your friends.
Thanks Sam, the more ham the better I say!
This soup can be made using turkey ham too. You don’t get the exact depth of flavor as with the ham bone, but not everyone can have ham, and it still tastes delicious.
That sounds great Becky, thanks.
Hi Trish, did you use fresh thyme or dried?
When I was a child, my mom made this every Monday. She did the laundry on Monday and this was something she could make and still run downstairs and do the laundry in the Maytag wringer washer, rinsing in the laundry tub, put the wet clothes in a basket, run upstairs and out to the side yard to the clothes line to hang the clothes out to dry. I guess it would be called a solar dryer these days:) I’m a vegetarian now, but will make this for my sweetie, who is not:) I don’t know what you did with the picture, but when I saw it, I could smell and taste my mom’s ham and bean soup. That was over 60 years ago. Such a good memory. Thanks for the recipe and smiles from the past. I can hardly wait to make this! I miss my mom:(
What a lovely story Betsy. I feel very touched that my recipe would bring back such happy memories. I have so very many memories as well cooking and baking with my Mom and Grandma. My Grandma passed over 25 years ago and my Mom has very advanced dementia now.
How do you prepare your ham?
Hi Mary, my favourite is using a crockpot. I have made this soup with leftovers from this recipe and it added some great extra flavour. https://www.artandthekitchen.com/slow-cooker-maple-and-beer-braised-ham/
you have some great dishes here I am a chef of over forty years now retired and my time is taken by blogging and scanning the internet for a site like yours, your photos very are good, soups are my favorite pass time I enjoy being creative, I just wanted to say how I enjoyed your recipes and your bean soup stopped me on my tracks, it is without a doubt my favorite, Thanks, I subscribed hope to get more nice recipes.
Chef Ernie
This recipe is delicious! I served it last night and there wasn’t much left. Everyone loved it! It’s definitely a recipe to use again in the future!
thank you so much Tess, this is one of my family’s favourite soups.
Have you tried freezing any of the Ham and Bean soup? It looks and sounds so good, but there are only two of us.
Hi Penny, yes this soup freezes very well.
Thanks for the response Laureen. It is simmering on the stove right now. I can’t wait to try it!
Hi Laureen,
I had to come back to tell you….I froze the leftover soup and we had some for lunch today. I think it was almost better after freezing it!! This is definitely going to be in my regular soup rotation! Thank you!
Delicious. We used chicken broth and vegetable broth. Thanks for the recipe. Whole family loved it.
Delicious. We used chicken broth and vegetable broth. Thanks for the recipe. Whole family loved it.
thank you so much Wanda.
A beautiful as well as amazing ham soup. I had ham leftovers and am serving it along with cornbread for a bunch of ppl this sunday!!!!! tks for the receipe and i love the pictures so i can see how it should look.
Thank you Sheri, cornbread sounds great to serve with this soup!
How much is one serving? 1 cup?
yes Robinn, about 1 cup. Although I can never have just one serving lol.
Can you use cans of great northern beans instead of dried beans? I wanted to try this recipe tonight and don’t have time for the dried version. Thank you.
yes but cook time would about 1- 1:30 minutes.
Thank you for the quick response. Can’t wait to try it.
This soup smelled so good all day as it cooked in the show cooker. I added 2 bay leaves and a cubed potato while cooking, too, since it just made the soup more yummy. It was delish. My husband and sister and myself loved it.
So awesome you and your family enjoyed the recipe. I just made a pot of this soup yesterday!
Really good. Served with a toasted chibatta bun, very filling. I soaked and cooked my beans first, as I often do not have success with soft beans when the soup should be done. but that is usually just me being impatient.
Wonderful Stephanie, so happy you enjoyed the recipe!
Best green bean soup I’ve ever had
Was very yummy! Will make again! 🍲
Thank you so much Lynn.
Our whole family has loved this soup for years! We make double and triple batches to freeze. We’ve also varied it a few ways. Often we’ll puree a small amount of the soup in a blender, then add it back into the pot for a thicker version. Recently we have used an Heirloom Bean Blend and added a splash or two of Oyster Sauce at the end of cooking, which makes it a rich, calico bean type of soup. This is such a great recipe as it is – or to play around with!
Erin, thank you for trying my recipe. I love when we can take a recipe and add our own twist to it.
Why do we need to add broth if we’ve slow boiled the ham hock in water?
Sand, I find it add that extra bit of flavor.
This soup was fabulous! I added 2 bay leaves. Didn’t have time to soak beans so I used canned great northern beans. So delicious! Cooked for 2hours.
Thank you Pam. Canned beans work great don’t they, when you don’t have time to soak beans.