Crockpot Ham and Bean Soup is the old fashioned kind of dinner that costs almost nothing and feeds everybody. A bag of dried beans, some leftover ham, and eight hours in the slow cooker while you go about your day.
Crockpot Ham and Bean Soup
What I love most is how little there is to it. Ten minutes of chopping, everything goes in at once, and you don’t touch it again. Of all the ham and bean soup recipes I’ve made over the years, this crockpot version is the one I keep coming back to, mostly because it turns the end of a holiday ham into three more dinners without me planning anything.
Ingredients & Equipment
- Dried great northern beans
- Carrot
- Onion
- Celery
- Garlic
- Diced ham
- Bay leaf
- Chicken broth
- Salt and pepper
Full measurements for each ingredient can be found in the printable recipe card at the bottom of this post.
You’ll also need a few things from your kitchen:
- Slow cooker
- Colander
- Cutting board
- Sharp knife
- Vegetable peeler
- Measuring cups
- Ladle
Step By Step Directions
This recipe makes 6 servings. It takes 10 minutes of prep time and 8 hours of cook time.
Step 1. Rinse the dried beans in a colander and pick through them for any small stones or shriveled beans.
Step 2. Combine the beans, diced carrot, chopped onion, chopped celery, minced garlic, diced ham, bay leaf, and chicken broth in the bowl of your slow cooker.
Step 3. Cover and cook on high for 6 hours or on low for 8 hours, until the beans are completely tender.
Step 4. Remove the bay leaf and season with salt and pepper before serving.
I use great northern beans, and they’re what this recipe is written for. They’re a medium sized white bean that holds its shape through a long cook and turns creamy on the inside.
If you’re looking for navy bean and ham soup, you can make this recipe exactly as written with navy beans instead. They’re the same family, just smaller and a little denser. Navy beans break down slightly more over eight hours, which gives you a thicker, cloudier broth. Some people prefer that. Use the same one pound amount and the same cook time.
Any white bean and ham soup works on this base. Cannellini beans are larger and creamier and cook in about the same time. Pinto beans give you an earthier, browner soup and also work. The one swap to be careful with is dried kidney beans, which need to be boiled hard for 10 minutes before they go anywhere near a slow cooker. That applies to 15 bean mixes too, since most of them have kidney beans in the blend.
Whichever you pick, buy them fresh. Dried beans that have been in the back of the pantry for two years sometimes never soften no matter how long you cook them.
Stovetop Ham and Bean Soup
If you don’t want to wait eight hours, this works on the stove in about two. Soak the beans overnight first, or do a quick soak by covering them with water, boiling for 2 minutes, and letting them sit off the heat for an hour.
Drain the beans, add everything to a large pot, bring it to a boil, then reduce to a low simmer and cook covered for about 90 minutes to 2 hours until the beans are tender. Stir once in a while and add more broth if it’s getting too thick. Pull the bay leaf and season at the end, same as the crockpot version.
Using a Leftover Ham Bone or Ham Hock
This is what I actually make the week after Christmas and Easter. A leftover ham bone with some meat still clinging to it goes into the slow cooker along with everything else, and it gives you a richer, smokier broth than diced ham alone ever will.
Drop the bone in at the start with the beans and broth. When the soup is done, pull the bone out, strip off any meat, chop it, and stir it back in. Discard the bone and any gristle. If your bone doesn’t have much meat left, add a cup of diced ham along with it so there’s something in every bowl.
Smoked ham hocks work the same way and are usually a couple of dollars at the store if you don’t have a leftover bone. Use one or two, and cut the salt back since hocks are salty on their own.
Variations
- Ham and pinto bean soup. Swap the great northern for dried pintos. Earthier and a little sweeter, and it holds up to more seasoning.
- Ham and 15 bean soup. Use a bag of 15 bean mix, but boil the beans hard for 10 minutes first because of the kidney beans in the blend. Skip the seasoning packet if it comes with one, since you’ve got ham and broth doing that work.
- Smoked ham and bean soup. Use smoked ham or add a smoked ham hock alongside the diced ham for a deeper flavor.
- Cheesy ham and bean soup. Stir 1 1/2 cups of shredded sharp cheddar into the pot at the end, off the heat.
- Add greens. Two big handfuls of chopped kale or spinach in the last 20 minutes.
- Add potatoes. Two diced russets added at the start make it heartier and thicken the broth.
- Spice it up. A teaspoon of smoked paprika, a pinch of red pepper flakes, or a splash of hot sauce at the table.
- Thicken it. Scoop out 2 cups of the finished soup, blend it smooth, and stir it back in. Creamy without adding any cream.
- Add a splash of vinegar. A tablespoon of apple cider vinegar at the very end brightens the whole pot. Add it at the end, never at the start.
Leftovers & Storage
Store leftover ham and bean soup in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. This is one of those soups that’s genuinely better on day two once the beans have soaked up more of the broth, so don’t feel bad about making it ahead.
It freezes beautifully for up to 3 months, which is not true of most of the soups I make. There’s no dairy in it, so nothing separates. I freeze it in individual portions and it comes back the same as the day I made it. It thickens as it sits, so add a splash of broth when you reheat.
Tips & Tricks
- Rinse and sort the beans. Dried beans occasionally come with a small stone in the bag. Thirty seconds in a colander is worth it.
- You don’t have to soak for the crockpot. Eight hours on low softens great northern beans without soaking. Soaking cuts about an hour off, so do it if it’s convenient.
- Don’t add salt until the end. Salt early can keep beans from softening properly, and between the ham and the broth there’s already plenty in the pot. Taste first.
- Same goes for anything acidic. Tomatoes, vinegar, and lemon all slow bean softening. Add them after the beans are already tender.
- Old beans may never soften. If your beans are still firm after the full cook time, they were too old. Give it another hour, and if they’re still hard, that’s the reason.
- Cut the ham bigger than you think. Half inch pieces hold up over eight hours. Small pieces disappear into the broth.
- Cornbread on the side. This is a thin soup, not a stew, and it wants something to go with it.
Recipe FAQs
Can I use canned beans instead of dried? Yes, and it cuts the cook time way down. Use four 15 ounce cans of great northern or navy beans, drained and rinsed, and cut the broth back to 5 cups. Cook on low for 3 hours instead of 8, since you’re really just warming everything and building flavor. The texture is a little softer than dried beans but it’s a solid shortcut.
Do I need to soak the beans first? Not for the slow cooker version. Eight hours on low is enough to soften unsoaked great northern beans. If you soak them overnight, cut the cook time to about 6 hours on low and check them.
Can I use a leftover ham bone instead of diced ham? Absolutely, and it makes the soup better. Add the bone at the start, then pull it out at the end, strip the meat off, and stir the meat back in. Add a cup of diced ham too if your bone is picked clean.
Why are my beans still hard after 8 hours? Usually it means the beans were old. It can also happen if salt or something acidic went in at the beginning. Give them another hour on high before you give up on them.
Can I make this in the Instant Pot? Yes. Add everything and cook on high pressure for 45 minutes with unsoaked beans, then let it natural release for 20 minutes. Season after you open it.
Is this soup supposed to be thin? It’s a brothy soup, not a thick stew. If you want it thicker, blend 2 cups of it and stir it back in, or mash some of the beans against the side of the slow cooker.
More Cozy Soup Recipes
- Crockpot Butternut Squash Soup
- Crockpot Loaded Baked Potato Soup
- Crockpot Chicken Pot Pie Soup
- Crockpot Chicken Noodle Soup
- Crockpot Cheeseburger Soup
Ingredients
- 1 pound dried great northern beans
- 1 carrot peeled and diced
- 1 small onion finely chopped
- 2 stalks celery finely chopped
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 2 cups diced ham
- 1 bay leaf
- 8 cups chicken broth
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Rinse the dried beans in a colander and pick through them for any small stones or shriveled beans.
- Combine the beans, diced carrot, chopped onion, chopped celery, minced garlic, diced ham, bay leaf, and chicken broth in the bowl of your slow cooker.
- Cover and cook on high for 6 hours or on low for 8 hours, until the beans are completely tender.
- Remove the bay leaf and season with salt and pepper before serving.
Notes
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