Bean Soup is an easy and inexpensive dish and one of our all-time favorite foods to come home to on a chilly day.
This “no-soaking required” Ham and Bean soup takes just minutes to prepare and cooks effortlessly in your Crock Pot all day long!
This easy recipe is quick to prep and delicious, the perfect way to use up any leftover ham and a great way to feed a crowd!
I am excited to have partnered with Hurst’s HamBeens® 15 BEAN SOUP® to bring you this belly-warming bean soup recipe.
Here’s Why You’ll Love This Ham & Bean Soup
Slow Cooker Ham and Bean soup is the perfect family meal!
- Simple and inexpensive, this is a great way to feed a crowd. This simple soup requires very few ingredients, starting with Hurst’s® HamBeens® 15 Bean Soup®, onions and ham.
- You’ll need just a few minutes of prep time and best of all the beans do not require soaking.
- You can use up leftover ham, a ham bone, smoked turkey or a ham hock.
- It’s healthy and delicious, everyone always loves it! This hearty soup is like a big ol’ hug in a bowl!
- This soup freezes and reheats well.
The slow cooker does all of the work creating an easy ham and bean soup that will warm you from the inside out.
Ingredients
BEANS:
Ham and bean soup is the ultimate comfort food and even more so when you have a beautiful mixture of beans! Hurst’s® HamBeens® 15 Bean Soup® is not only my favorite mixture, I know you guys love it just as much as I do!
Hurst’s HamBeens top-notch for both quality and flavor and are easily found in the dry bean section of almost any grocery store (or you can order them online). Along with the beans, a seasoning packet is included in each package of 15 Bean Soup making it simple and perfectly seasoned every time!
SEASONING:
Hurst’s 15 Bean Soup comes with a vegetable-based seasoning packet that really takes this recipe to the next level. It has great flavor, the perfect amount of seasoning, and a hint of smokiness. Adding the seasoning towards the end of cooking gives this soup an amazing flavor boost.
A squeeze of fresh lemon adds freshness. While I use plain tomatoes, you can also use canned tomatoes with chilis to add a little bit of spice or heat to this ham and bean soup!
Ham for Bean Soup
If you happen to have a leftover ham bone from your holiday baked ham, THIS is the recipe you’re going to want to make with it.
If you don’t have a ham bone, ask your local butcher or deli for either ham bones (they are usually really inexpensive) or ham hocks. Our deli down the road sells ham hocks for just a few dollars each. If you don’t have either, leftover chopped ham works beautifully in this recipe too.
No Soaking Required
One thing we really love about this ham and bean soup recipe is that you do not have to soak the beans before cooking.
- Rinse beans well and check for any debris. No soaking is needed when using a slow cooker.
- If you have already soaked the beans, you can reduce the liquid in the recipe by 1 cup.
- IMPORTANT: Add acidic ingredients (such as canned tomatoes or lemon juice) after the beans have softened (these ingredients can sometimes interfere with rehydration).
How to Make Ham and Bean Soup
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Rinse beans and add to the slow cooker with onions, ham, broth and seasonings (per the recipe below).
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Cook on high 5 hours (or low for 7-8) or until beans are tender.
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Stir in remaining ingredients and cook for additional 30 minutes.
Easy peasy! Serve warm with cornbread for dipping.
How to Thicken Bean Soup
This soup comes out very thick and hearty, just the way we love it!
If you prefer a thinner consistency, add one extra cup of broth or water to your slow cooker. If you’d like a thicker bean soup you can remove a cup or so of the beans and blend them and add them back into the soup. You won’t change the flavor this way, just thicken the consistency, the soup will become almost more creamy this way.
We love this Ham and Bean soup served right out of the Crock Pot with a big piece of moist cornbread but it’s delicious served over rice too!
Can You Freeze Ham and Bean Soup?
Yes, not only is it easy, but this ham and bean soup recipe makes a huge batch and it freezes beautifully. That means cook once, have two dinners and lunches all week… count me in!
We freeze this in individual portions so we can easily grab one for lunches and the smaller portions defrost quicker.
More Slow Cooker Recipes You’ll Love
- 15 Bean Slow Cooker Chili – Game day favorite!
- Slow Cooker Turkey Soup (Cajun Bean) – Perfect for Leftovers!
- Easy Crock Pot Ham and Potato Soup
- Crock Pot Ham (Video) – Use leftovers for this ham and bean soup!
- Slow Cooker Butternut Squash Chili – Comfort food!
- Crock Pot Italian Bean Soup – so hearty & flavorful
Ham and Bean Soup {Crock Pot Version}
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 package Hurst’s® HamBeens® 15 Bean Soup®
- 8 cups low sodium chicken broth can sub water, beef, or vegetable broth for added flavor
- 1 leftover ham bone with meat or ham hocks, diced ham or 1 lb. cooked sausage
- 1 onion diced
- 1 clove garlic minced
- 1 teaspoon chili powder optional
- 15 ounces diced tomatoes
- 1 lemon juiced
- Optional: Hot sauce or crushed red pepper to taste
Instructions
- Rinse beans and drain. Sort any unwanted debris and set seasoning packet aside.
- Place beans, onions, ham bone (or diced ham), broth/water, garlic and chili powder in a 6qt slow cooker.
- Cook on high 5 hours (or low for 7-8) or until beans are tender.
- Once tender, remove the hambone (if used) and chop any meat left on the bone and add it back to the pot.
- Stir in diced tomatoes, Ham Flavor packet, and lemon juice.
- Cook for additional 30 minutes.
Video
Notes
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Soup
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Absolutely superb.
I made this yesterday, and it was delicious! I used 2 ham steaks about 8 ounces each. Perfect amount of ham. Make sure you get Hurst’s beans with the seasoning packet.
I may be wrong, but I have read that you cannot cook kidney beans in the crockpot as it does not come to a boil. Kidney beans contains a chemical that is harmful unless they are boiled for ten minutes. I do not know if any of the other beans included in the mix need to be boiled.
Hi Carol, for this recipe we use 1 package Hurst’s® HamBeens® 15 Bean Soup® which is designed to be used in a crockpot. I hope that helps!
Do I ABSOLUTELY need to add the tomatoes & lemon juice? I know my husband wouldn’t like these.
I take care of my granddaughter & am gone during the week & home on weekends & need some fresh recipes that he can eat while I’m gone & this will be PERFECT this Fall & Winter!
While I have only made this recipe as written it should be okay to leave them out. It will just alter the flavor.
This is the best bean soup I have ever eaten! I’ve made it several times now and we absolutely love it. It freezes well too, so on a cold nasty day I can pull out a container and heat it up and it’s a fast comforting dinner. ❤️❤️❤️❤️
Legumes contain phytic acid and enzyme inhibitors, and require a careful soak before cooking. Phytic acid blocks mineral absorption and enzyme inhibitors reduce the amount of nutrients available. In order to get nutrition from the beans and prevent intestinal distress they must be soaked with an acid, a little lemon juice or cider vinegar in the water. It is very easy to soak them and this recipe is very good after!
Hi Amy! I wanted to clarify for the newer cooks. I am assuming you are cooking with the Weston Price Foundation nutritional guidelines—certainly cannot go wrong there! But beans are a tricky food, and don’t always benefit from adding an acid to the soaking water. Some do—like black beans, lentils and fava beans, but others, like split peas, kidney beans, cannellini beans and other white beans need a neutral to slightly alkaline soak. Or they will stay hard.
So for the 15-bean soup, the plain water is best, as it uses a variety of beans. I am older, and speak from hard-won experience—it is very disappointing to spend all day cooking a lovely, great-smelling soup that no one will eat because the beans are hard! Lol! It was confusing to me over the years because I had a black bean soup that cooked with tomatoes and was fine. I had no idea different beans needed different treatment.
This is a wonderful soup recipe and I am tucking it into my planned rotation for fall. Loving all the soup recipes here—and especially your photographs! I am glad I found your site!
This was the best bean soup I ever made! The lemon brightened the flavor and making it in the crockpot was a breeze!
Can I use regular white beans if I can’t find the Hurst package. If so, what seasonings would I add.
The seasoning packet can be replaced with a bouillon cube of any flavor you like. Hope that helps! If Hurst doesn’t ship to your area, you can also buy them on Amazon so that might be a possibility. Hope that helps!