A hearty soup is an easy meal and the perfect way to enjoy leftover ham.
This hearty homemade ham and bean soup recipe is easy to make – no soaking required! A mixture of beans, ham, onion, and broth simmer in the crockpot for a meal that is as easy as it is delicious!
Serve it with a piece of cornbread or a crusty loaf for dipping.
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I am excited to have partnered with Hurst’s HamBeens® 15 BEAN SOUP® to bring you this belly-warming bean soup recipe.
Hearty Homestyle Goodness
- A hearty family meal, this slow cooker Ham and Bean Soup recipe is easy to prepare.
- This simple soup requires few ingredients, starting with Hurst’s® HamBeens® 15 Bean Soup®, onions, and ham – no soaking required.
- Budget-friendly, this soup can be made with leftover ham or a ham bone from Christmas or Easter dinner. You can also use smoked turkey or a ham hock.
- This soup freezes perfectly and reheats well.
Ingredients for Ham and Bean Soup
- Beans – This ham and bean soup starts with a blend of dried beans. I use Hurst’s® HamBeens® 15 Bean Soup® as it has a great variety of beans including great northern beans, navy beans, and more. They are sold in the dry bean section of almost any grocery store or online.
- Seasoning – Hurst’s 15 Bean Soup includes a seasoning packet to flavor. If you don’t have the seasoning packet add a cube of bouillon (any flavor). You can also add dried herbs or bay leaves if you’d like. You can add a little bit of thyme or some minced cloves of garlic if you’d like.
- Ham – If you have a leftover ham bone from baked ham add it to the soup while it’s cooked for extra flavor. If you don’t have a ham bone, ask the butcher or deli for either ham bones (they’re usually inexpensive) or ham hocks. If you don’t have either, leftover chopped ham works beautifully in this recipe, too.
- Broth – As the ham adds a lot of salt, I prefer a reduced sodium broth in this recipe.
- Vegetables – Canned tomatoes are great in this recipe and can be replaced with canned tomatoes with chilis (like Rotel) to add a little bit of spice. Sliced celery or carrots can be added.
How to Make Slow Cooker Ham and Bean Soup
- Rinse beans and add to the slow cooker with onions, ham, broth, and seasonings (per the recipe below).
- Cook on high for 5 hours (or low for 7-8) or until beans are tender.
- Stir in the remaining ingredients and cook for an additional 30 minutes.
Easy peasy! Serve warm with cornbread for dipping.
Important: Do not add acidic ingredients, like canned tomatoes, until the beans are soft.
Tips for Bean Soup
- Rinse the 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).
- For a thinner consistency, add one extra cup of broth or water to your slow cooker. For a thicker bean soup, remove a cup or so of the beans, blend them, and add them back into the soup.
Storing Leftovers
Fridge: Leftovers can be kept in the refrigerator for up to 4 days in an airtight container.
Freezer: This ham and bean soup recipe makes a large batch and it freezes well. I divide it into individual portions so it’s easy to thaw as many portions as needed. Thaw in the fridge overnight and heat in the microwave or on the stovetop.
More Favorite Bean Soups
Did your family love this Slow Cooker Ham and Bean Soup? Be sure to leave a rating and a comment below!
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 package HamBeens® 15 BEAN SOUP® with seasoning packet
- 8 cups reduced sodium chicken broth or chicken stock
- 1 meaty ham bone or ham hocks, diced ham or 1 lb. cooked sausage
- 1 medium yellow onion diced
- 1 clove garlic minced
- 1 teaspoon chili powder optional
- 15 ounces canned diced tomatoes with juices, 1 can
- 1 lemon juiced
- hot sauce or red pepper flakes to taste, optional
Instructions
- Rinse the beans and drain. Sort any unwanted debris and set seasoning packet aside.
- In a 6qt crockpot, add the beans, broth, ham bone (if using), onion, garlic, and chili powder in a 6qt slow cooker. Do not add lemon or tomatoes until the beans are softened.
- Cook on high for 5 hours (or low for 7-8) or until the beans are tender.
- Once the beans are tender, remove the ham bone (if using), chop any meat left on the bone, and add it back to the slow cooker.
- Stir in the diced tomatoes, ham seasoning packet, and lemon juice.
- Cook for an additional 30 minutes. Season with salt and black pepper to taste and garnish with fresh parsley if desired.
Video
Notes
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Pork, Slow Cooker, Soup
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I am excited to have partnered with Hurst’s HamBeens® 15 BEAN SOUP® to bring you this belly-warming recipe. While I was compensated for this post, all thoughts and opinions are my own. Working with great brands I love allows me to keep bringing you the great recipes you love!
I don’t want seriously over cooked ham? So I want to make sure I purchase the right ham. We don’t have any small grocery stores or anywhere with a butcher to speak with so I’m just going to try to find a ham hock hopefully at Walmart.
Does the ham have to be raw or can it be pre cooked?
We use smoked (cooked) ham in this recipe.
I tried this and now I am hooked, making again tomorrow, I still like to soak the beans for awhile though. I love this so much I have made it at least a dozen times so far. l love leftovers so it is perfect, thanks, Deb
So happy to hear that, Deb!
Made this today in crock pot (cooking while I was at work) & we ate it tonight. It was Easy & Delish!! My kind of cooking. Once again – I am very pleased with this website. No fuss – great
recipes. Thank You!! Diana
My family loves this recipe! We have made it both with ham and smoked sausage and they are both delicious. Today, I used our ham bone from Easter yesterday. We had a bunch of homemade mashed potatoes, Southern green beans and ham slices left over so this time I put a scoop of mashed potatoes in each bowl, some of the cut up ham and green beans and a good ladel of the beans with liquid and stired it all up. OMG my new favorite way to have this recipe!!! It made it so creamy and over the top! Maybe we’re weird but my entire family absolutely loved it this way..lol.
Not weird to me! Right now, I am cooking some potatoes and carrots with a cube of beef broth. Added leftover red beans cooked with ham and some leftover ranch-style beans. So far, it tastes good. When the veggies are tender, I am adding leftover cabbage with german sausage. What an eclectic soup! I love to cook this way.
So do I just throw the Ham bone in the crock pot with the beans and the chicken broth and let the magic happen? or do i boil the ham bone before cooking all the indgredents? my first time making bean soup, and yours looks so good!
You don’t have to cook the ham bone beforehand it will cook in the liquid!
This soup is outstanding. I made it last year with my leftover Easter ham & again this year. So easy, too.
This is a favorite for leftover ham. Or You can also use any kielbasa, smoked sausage or whatever you like. I agree using less liquid. , we like it thicker. I use about 6 cups of liquid.
Glad you enjoyed it, Lori! We love using this recipe for leftover ham too, it is the perfect easy meal.
I have made this dozens of time. The only change is I put in the crockpot around 10 PM on warm – when I wake up in the night (which I always do) I switch over to LOW. In the morning, around 10:00 am I add the bean seasoning and squeeze half a lemon. Oh and I always add the dices tomatoes at the beginning. I made this just today and my husband said its the best soup he has ever had!
Made this recipe yesterday and it turned out fantastic.My small town only had one grocery store and luckily they carried the Hurst’s beans.I live alone and froze small containers for later.
very good soup as are most of your recipes.I didn’t have a ham hock but buying two ham steaks worked out great. And I added Ro-Tel tomatoes with chilies.It’s a lot easier than making a pot of chili.
Those substitutions sound delicious, Russ. Glad you enjoyed this recipe!
I just started making the soup by pouring everything in the crockpot. I used the full ingredients and it took the fluid level right up to the top with the ham hocks. When it comes time to pour in the diced tomatoes, would doing a light drain on them (to prevent overflowing) hurt the taste?
Hi Tasha, you can lightly strain the tomatoes or remove some of the chicken broth to help prevent it from overflowing. It shouldn’t affect the flavor too much!
soup mix is an American product that cannot be ordered online as company only ships within the US. There was no offer from the website of an alternative recipe that did not require the seasoning package. Also no ingredient list nor nutritional list offered for the seasoning package which is mandatory where I live. I’ve made bean and pea soups for well over 60 years but thought upon seeing your latest e-letter recipe offering for the no soak crockpot recipe that included a special spice package, I’d give your recipe a go after I ordered the hambeens soup mix online. Very disappointed to find that would not be possible. Hopefully you’ll add that info to your description notes when using any of the other seasoned bean mix, next time.
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!
try Bob’s Red Mill!
Joycelyn the ham flavor packet is really not needed… it will be fine without it. If you want, you can substitute one of the following: Goya low sodium ham flavor, Badia ham flavor, Better than Bullion ham base…… or just a dash or two of liquid smoke. Most of the ham flavor packets are nothing more than salt, MSG, smoke and ham flavorings.
Agreed on the ingredients in the packet. I stock up the beans, then use the beans without the packets, ( packets to trash, I like liquid smoke, Low Sodium Spicy V8, and tons of onions and garlic. Low Sodium Vegetable Broth, and a homemade herb seasoning with no salt, or I add Mrs Dash, Original or Table Blend. Dried mustard powder or a good squirt of Dijon. Finally black pepper. Beans soak up a lot of seasoning so being bold Is important. Nutritional yeast and mushroom, while unusual, add so much Umami flavor. That packet just doesn’t do it.
Please include all of the great recipes from this ad they are all favorites and after 87 years I still love the bean and split pea soups.
Thank you
So glad you are enjoying these recipes, George!
Holly, I saw your ham and bean soup recipe several times over the last few weeks, and I finally got around to trying it. Why did I wait so long?! This soooo delicious, easy to put together and convenient. I’ll be looking more closely at your other slow cooker recipes. I’m a believer!
I am so ready to try some of these recipes!
My favorite bean soup recipe! When I don’t have ham I substitute with smoked sausage. Hubby loves this for dinner with corn bread and a side salad.
I made this in the crockpot. I cooked in for 10 hours on low after soaking the beans for about 4 hours. It came out perfect. Super tasty.
Made this last night with leftover Easter ham .” This was hearty and delicious “. The bean soup took 5 hours on high . Made per recipe instructions and added the optional chili powder . Decided to mash up some of the beans as in the stockpot version . Made southern cornbread to go with the bean soup. Thank You so much for this recipe !
You’re welcome Kat, so happy that you love the soup! Definitely yummy with cornbread!
2nd time making this! It’s delicious. I use a little more Han in addition to the soup bone and more onion and garlic cloves as well. Other than that I followed this recipe exactly. Delicious on a cold day or anytime really!
I look forward to make your recipes for soup . Thank you