Crockpot Ham and Bean Soup
Creamy white beans slow-cooked with a smoky ham hock, diced ham, carrots and onion. The best thing that can happen to a leftover holiday ham.
- Crockpot
- Slow cooker
- Pork
- Dinner
- 540 min total
- Serves 8
Ingredients
Ingredients for servings
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Original recipe serves 8. Ingredient amounts adjust automatically. Cooking times and pan size may need adjusting separately.
- 1 lb dried great northern beans, picked over, rinsed and soaked overnight
- 1 smoked ham hock, about 1 lb, or a leftover ham bone
- 2 cups diced ham, cooked
- 1 yellow onion, diced
- 2 carrots, diced
- 2 celery stalks, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 6 cups chicken broth, low sodium
- 2 cups water
- 1 tsp dried thyme
- 2 bay leaves
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp apple cider vinegar, at the end
- kosher salt, to taste, at the end
Gear
- Slow cooker, 6 quart
- Large pot for the pre-boil
- Colander
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Steps
Step 1: Drain and rinse the soaked beans. Put them in a pot, cover with fresh water by 2 inches, bring to a hard boil and boil 10 minutes. Drain. This step makes sure the beans get fully cooked and safe.
Step 2: Put the beans, ham hock, diced ham, onion, carrots, celery, garlic, broth, water, thyme, bay leaves and pepper in the slow cooker.
Step 3: Cover and cook on Low 8 to 9 hours, until the beans are completely creamy inside.
Step 4: Pull out the ham hock and bay leaves. When the hock is cool enough to handle, pick the meat off, chop it and stir it back in. Toss the skin, bone and fat.
Step 5: Mash about a cup of beans against the side of the pot to thicken the soup. Stir in the vinegar, then taste and add salt only if it needs it.
Step 6: Serve with cornbread.
Swaps
- Beans: Navy beans cook a little faster and get extra creamy.
- Short on time: Use 4 cans of great northern beans, drained, and cook on Low 4 hours. Skip the soak and boil.
- Greens: Stir in 4 cups of chopped kale or collards for the last hour.
Tips
- Don’t skip the 10-minute boil for dried beans. A slow cooker may not get raw beans hot enough to make them safe.
- A teaspoon of vinegar at the end makes the beans taste less heavy.
- Smoked turkey wings work in place of a ham hock.
The story
HAM Cooking. Let’s fire it up.
If you’ve got a ham bone sitting in the fridge after a holiday, this is its retirement plan. A good bone still has plenty of flavor left, and a slow cooker is the best way to get every bit out of it.
The ham hock or bone is basically a flavor bomb. It’s smoky, salty, and full of collagen, and as it simmers it turns plain water and broth into a rich, silky base. The beans soak up that smoky flavor as they slowly soften.
There’s one rule here that isn’t optional. Dried beans contain a natural compound that can make you sick if they’re undercooked, and some slow cookers on Low never get hot enough to break it down. A quick 10-minute hard boil before they go in the crock takes care of it. It’s ten minutes. Do it.
And hold the salt until the end. Ham is already salty, and it releases more as it cooks. Taste first. Then decide.
Serve it with a hunk of cornbread and you’ve got a whole country supper in one bowl.
HAM out.
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