Ham and Bean Soup

An hour may be spent making this quick and simple recipe for Ham and Bean Soup with leftover ham that you already have on hand! Using an Instant Pot and Slow Cooker as well.

With a few minor tweaks and a considerably quicker preparation time, this delicious soup is similar to our original Slow Cooker Ham and Bean Soup. It took less than an hour to do in all! During the holidays, this soup dish is a terrific way to use up leftover baked ham because it’s just as warm and tasty.

A year-round favorite, ham and bean soup is especially warming on chilly evenings. With tinned beans, cooked ham, sautéed vegetables, herbs, and broth, it’s a really simple meal. No hours of boiling or overnight soaking of beans. This page has directions for slow cooking, as well as variants using an Instant Pot and dry beans, if you prefer low and slow cooking techniques.

Simple and rapid Leftover cooked ham from the butcher or deli, or leftover bone-in ham, can be used to make Ham and Bean Soup. You may either use a thick-cut ham steak or purchase precut cubed ham. Slices from the deli should not be used since they will not provide much taste or texture.

How to Make Ham and Bean Soup

With its low effort level, this robust soup dish is ideal for home chefs. Your family will be begging you to prepare it every week since it’s so tasty and effortless! Look it over!

• Sauté Vegetables: Melt butter in a large Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the celery, carrots, and chopped onion. Add salt and pepper for seasoning, then simmer, turning periodically, until onions become transparent, about 6 to 8 minutes. Minced garlic is added and cooked for an additional minute. Note: Roughly chop your celery, onions, and carrots to the same size. This facilitates evenly cooking and sautéing them.
• Mix the ingredients: Add the chicken broth, dried rosemary, bay leaves, chopped ham, and washed and drained Cannellini beans. Mix thoroughly.
• Cook: Turn the heat up to medium-high and boil the soup. After that, lower the heat to medium-low and simmer the soup for half an hour.
• Serve hot soup with crusty bread or your favorite side after removing the bay leaves and thyme sprig.

Key Ingredients

• Unsalted butter: This gives the soup a rich basis by being used to sauté the veggies. Make sure the butter is unsalted because ham has a salty taste. Later on, you may easily add extra salt.
• Vegetables: The traditional blend of flavor-enhancing and nutrient-dense aromatic vegetables such as yellow onion, carrots, and celery.
• Cooked and chopped ham adds a flavorful and savory element to the soup.
• Cannellini beans are a good source of protein and have a creamy texture.
• Herbs: The soup’s distinct and fragrant taste profile is enhanced by the addition of dried rosemary and fresh thyme. In addition, bay leaves, commonly referred to as laurel leaves, a traditional soup ingredient, give the broth a remarkable depth.
• Since it serves as the soup’s base, chicken broth offers a flavorful and rich base. If you’d like, you may also use four glasses of water.

Can Ham and White Bean Soup be made ahead of time?

Of course! This soup may be prepared in advance and is ideal for meal prep. To do this, proceed with the preparation directions and allow the soup to cool fully before putting it in an airtight container. You may freeze the soup for up to three months or keep it in the fridge for up to three days. When the soup is ready to consume, cook it gently over low heat on the stovetop until it’s thoroughly heated. You may thin down any thickened soup by adding a little amount of more chicken or vegetable stock to attain the right consistency. For a filling dinner, serve the reheated soup with a piece of crusty bread or your favorite side dish!

Variations on Ham and Bean Soup

• Vegetables: This ham soup would taste great with other vegetables including spinach, kale, green beans, peas, and zucchini. You can cook potatoes, sweet potatoes, or squash for an additional 10 to 15 minutes.
• Ham Bone: To enhance the taste of any remaining ham bone, cook it in a pan for three to four minutes on each side before adding it.
• Ham Hocks: You may give your soup a smokey taste by adding ham hocks or ham shanks! When the ham is chopped, add a smoked ham hock to the broth and cook until the flesh is coming from the bone, about 1 hour.
• Make ham broth ahead of time using your leftover ham bone for the ultimate hammy recipe for ham and bean soup. After bringing 8 cups of water and a ham bone to a boil, simmer them covered for one to three hours.
• White Beans: You may use whichever white beans you have on hand, but cannellini, navy, and great northern beans taste best when paired with ham. You may substitute canned black-eyed peas or dry lentils without changing the cooking time.
• Dry Beans: Soak dry beans in water for the entire night if using them. After the water has been drained, make 8 to 10 cups of broth. Once the beans are soft, simmer the soup for two to three hours after bringing it to a boil.

Alternative Cooking Techniques

Slow Cooker Ham and Bean Soup

• Melt butter in a pan and add celery, carrots, and onion. Sauté for 3–4 minutes, or until onions are tender.
• Add the minced garlic and heat for about 30 seconds, or until fragrant.
• Fill a slow cooker with the onion mixture.
• If using a hambone, cook for three to four minutes on each side. Pour into the slow cooker.
• Except for the canned beans, add the remaining ingredients to the crock pot.
• Put a cover on it and cook for 6–8 hours on low or 3–4 hours on high.
• Cook the canned beans in the slow cooker for an extra thirty minutes on high heat.
• *Dried beans can be added at the beginning and cooked with the soup. Before using, soak beans for one night.

Instant Pot Ham and Bean Soup

• Put the Instant Pot on the Sauté setting and sauté the carrots, celery, and onion in butter for three to four minutes. Cook with onion mixture if using hambone.
• Add the minced garlic and sauté for 30 seconds or until fragrant, once the onions are soft.
• While you add the final ingredients, turn off the Instant Pot.
• Fasten the cover and shut the valve. For 20 minutes*, set the Instant Pot to the Soup function.
• Ten minutes of natural relaxation of pressure, followed by a rapid release. After stirring, serve.
• To cook dry beans, soak them overnight and add an extra 30 minutes to the cooking time.

How to Store Ham and Bean Soup

• To serve, let the ham and bean soup sit at room temperature for a maximum of two hours. Serve warm in a crock pot for up to 4 hours, stirring regularly, to preserve freshness longer.
• Store: Let the soup (ham and beans) cool before putting it in the refrigerator for up to three days in an airtight container. Warm up again over medium heat on the stovetop.
• Freeze: After the soup cools fully, store it in sealed freezer containers for up to three months. Before reheating on the stovetop, let the food thaw overnight in the refrigerator.

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