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Nana Ruth would never have thrown away a ham bone. She’d have looked at you like you suggested burning money. “That bone has a whole other meal in it,” she’d say, and she was right — because white bean and ham soup is what happens when you take something most people throw away and turn it into something that feeds your whole family twice.
I make this in the slow cooker the week after any holiday ham, and by dinnertime the house smells like someone’s been cooking all day. The beans get creamy, the ham flavors every spoonful, and Jake always says it’s his favorite way to stretch the holidays a little longer.
Nana Ruth kept dried beans in glass jars on the shelf above her stove — navy beans, pintos, great northerns, limas. After any holiday with a big piece of meat, the bone went into a pot with whatever beans she had. She’d let it go all day on the back burner, stirring it when she walked by, adding water when it got too thick. By dinner, you had a pot of soup that was rich and smoky and thick enough to hold a spoon upright.
How to Make Crockpot White Bean and Ham Soup
No soaking required — the slow cooker handles it. Put your dried white beans straight into the crockpot with diced ham, a ham bone if you have one, diced onion, garlic, carrots, celery, and a bay leaf. Pour in enough chicken broth to cover everything by about an inch. Set it on low and walk away.
Eight hours later, you have soup. The beans will be creamy and tender, the ham will have flavored every drop of broth, and the vegetables will be perfectly soft. Fish out the ham bone and bay leaf. If you want a thicker soup, mash some of the beans against the side of the pot with a wooden spoon — it thickens the broth without losing the texture of the whole beans.
Season at the end, not the beginning. Ham is already salty, so taste the soup before adding any salt. A good crack of black pepper, a squeeze of lemon juice to brighten everything up, and serve with cornbread or crusty bread. This is the kind of meal that costs almost nothing and tastes like everything.
If you have leftover ham, my Slow Cooker Split Pea Soup is another great way to use it up. For more hearty soups, try my Minestrone Soup or my Lasagna Soup — both are one-pot meals the whole family loves.
Crockpot White Bean and Ham Soup
Ingredients
- 1 lb dried great northern beans rinsed, soaked overnight
- 2 cups diced ham
- 1 medium onion diced
- 2 carrots diced
- 2 stalks celery diced
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 6 cups chicken broth
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
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Drain soaked beans and add to slow cooker along with ham, onion, carrots, celery, garlic, broth, bay leaf, and thyme.
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Cover and cook on LOW for 7-8 hours until beans are very tender.
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Remove bay leaf. Use a potato masher to mash about a quarter of the beans against the side of the pot — this thickens the soup beautifully.
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Season with salt and pepper. Serve with cornbread.
This soup is the perfect way to use up leftover ham from my Easter Ham with Honey-Herb Glaze or Brown Sugar Glazed Ham.
Common Questions
More Recipes You’ll Love
- Slow Cooker Split Pea Soup
- Maggie’s Loaded Potato Soup (The $8 Dinner That Feeds the Whole Family)
- Slow Cooker Chicken and Wild Rice Soup
- Maggie’s Minestrone Soup
What I Use for This Recipe
A couple things from my kitchen that make this one easier.
Big enough for Sunday soup, light enough to lift. Every kitchen needs a pot this honest.
Set it before school drop-off, come home to dinner. The most-used appliance in my kitchen after the stove.
For every stew, pot roast, and soup that needs low-and-slow love. The pot I reach for on Sundays.
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