Ham and Bean Soup is deliciously creamy, simple and economical soup to have on hand for the thermos on a chilly Autumn or Winter day.
Ham and Bean Soup
By Sue Lau | Palatable Pastime
Jump to Recipe
Ham and Bean Soup is my recipe of the day. It is my favorite thing to make when I have leftover baked ham.
Print Recipe
Let’s face it. There’s not a whole lot to making a pot of bean soup. Or is there?
Fortune struck me once again when I was out at the market and came across a bin of ham bones for a buck each from a maker or prosciutto. Did you see the twinkle in my eye there?
One of the best kept secrets of home cooking is the ham bone. I could possibly hoard them like silver dollars. In fact, I have even been known to buy a ham on the bone just to get…the bone. Ha! Then there was the time my husband trimmed the remaining baked ham for me and pitched the bone. I can happily report he never did that again.
Besides all the meaty flavor you can get from a bone, it adds lots of collagen to your food. Who doesn’t like collagen? Certainly not fairy princesses or beautiful women.
But don’t worry if you want to toss together a pot of bean soup and have no ham bone. Good acceptable substitutes are other bones from pork, such as one from a pork picnic or shoulder blade roast. At those times using the pork in the beans instead of added ham is a plus.
Besides that, there are always ham hocks, which although being fatty, do add flavor if not an extra step of skimming the soup. On a leaner note you could try using a smoked turkey wing or leg and adding that meat back to the soup, although the wing doesn’t yield as much meat as the drumstick.
Besides that, there is bacon, but to really add enough to make the beans meaty, it is very high in fat.
Ham and Bean Soup
You might also like:
Instant Pot Butter Beans and Country Ham
Instant Pot Butter Beans and Country Ham combines dried baby lima beans with ham in an electric pressure cooker for a quick one pot meal.
Southern Skillet Cornbread
Southern Skillet Cornbread makes a seriously delicious cornbread without a single pinch of sugar in it, as per the law.
Slow Cooker Appalachian Soup Beans
Hot Water Cornbread
Hot Water Cornbread uses a few simple pantry ingredients to create a batter from which small breads are fried rather than baked.
Instant Pot Ranch Style Beans
Instant Pot Ranch Style Beans are a Texas style favorite of canned beans in the black label, easily made in your own kitchen in quick time.
Ham and Bean Soup
Ham and Bean Soup
Ingredients
- 1 pound dried great northern beans or other white beans
- 1 onion chopped
- 1 carrot chopped
- 3 cloves garlic crushed
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 teaspoon thyme leaves
- 1 bay leaf
- 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1 ham bone or other suitable seasoning, such as a ham hock or smoked turkey leg/wing
- 12 ounces chopped smoked ham
- 6 cups water
Instructions
- Sort beans and place in a Dutch oven covered with a few inches of water.
- Bring beans to a boil and cook 3 minutes. Shut off heat, cover tightly and allow to sit for one hour.
- Drain soaked beans and return to pot with 6 cups of water, chopped onion, chopped carrot, 3 cloves crushed garlic, baking soda, black pepper, thyme leaves, and ham bone.
- Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer, cover, and cook for one hour.
- Uncover and remove ham bone, pepper flakes and bay leaf, then partially mash some of the cooked beans.
- Stir in chopped ham pieces and any usable ham/hock/turkey from the seasoning meat, then cook until thickened, adjusting for salt before serving, if needed.
Notes
Nutrition
Don’t Forget to Pin & Save the Recipe!
Join my recipe group on Facebook for more recipes from blogger friends around the world!
Palatable Recipes
This recipe had been updated from 10.10.13 to include fresh photos and recipe card.
I made this last week, yummy
don’t like garlic but love the celery also a secret ingredient my mom always used I will not divulge unless you ask me
Interested to know= why the baking soda?
It actually makes the beans more creamy and tender.
OH! I didn’t know that but now I’ll add it to my pink bean soup recipe. It’s good to learn something new every day. Thank you!