Ham And Bean Soup

Who doesn't love a hearty soup on a cold day? This ham and bean soup recipe is perfect for taking care of that leftover ham bone after a holiday meal. I look forward to this recipe every year. We usually have ham for our Christmas or New Year's dinners, and with that comes the ham bone. I hate throwing things away so we make soup out of it! This soup is super simple and can be ready within a couple of hours depending on what type of beans you use. It also pairs well with some of our classic dinner rolls.

Besides for being delicious, I love this soup because it is made from simple kitchen ingredients, the ham bone being the exception. Some dried beans, a few carrots, celery ribs, onion, and garlic are all the produce. There are also a couple cups of chicken stock, water, and a few spices. That is it! Plus it is a nice and slow process, no need to stress about getting the timing just right.

A few notes on the beans... I use great northern beans, I think they taste good and look good in the soup. I also buy them dried which means that you will need to soak them over night or boil them and let them sit for a couple of hours before you start the soup. This is a bit of a pain if you are like me and are always making things last minute. Taking the time to do this can reduce the bloating you feel from eating them as well as save you some money since dried beans are usually less expensive than canned beans. If you decide to use canned beans. I would recommend only cooking them for the last 30 mins or so. This sort of changes the recipe from what I have below, but that is due to the softness of the canned beans. If you try it and it works, please leave a comment so I can hear how it came out.

When using dried beans, sort out any beans that seem discolored or broken. Once you have 1lb of cleaned and sorted beans. Put them in a pot with 8 cups of water and let them sit overnight. If you are like me and forget to do that, there is a quick soak option. You would boil the beans in the 8 cups of water for 2 mins, then remove them from the heat and let them sit for 2 hours. After that time, drain the beans and discard the water.

While the beans are soaking, you can prep the rest of the soup. Everything is pretty straight forward but the ham bone may cause you to have some questions. How much do you put in? Should I scrape off the fat? What about the seasoning I used on the ham? These are all good questions and the answer to these questions depends on how you like your soup. First, don't worry about the seasoning of the ham, it can transfer over, but probably not much since the ham bone is the center of the ham. It would be a serious flavor to soak into the ham that deep. Any bits that were on the outer layers close to the ends will be fine to add. Again you have to think that if you liked the flavor of the ham as it was, then you will like it in this soup. The other flavors in the ham and bean soup will complement it.

I generally add the entire ham bone, and about a cup of the ham meat cut in to little cubes. I do leave a fair amount of fat since that adds to the flavor of the soup. You can always scrape extra fat off the top later once the soup cools. I would use your best judgement when added meat to the soup, you need enough so that each bowl will have some in it. There are a lot of other items in this soup. I feel like having a balance of all of the ingredients is what make a soup really good. Keep this in mind since you likely have a fair amount of ham left over and the meat that is attached to the bone will release during cooking. I wish I would have gotten a photo of the ham before I added it to the soup but alas... I did not. You can see how much I added a little later in the post.

Next, turn your attention toward the veggies. I usually use 3 carrots and celery ribs, one medium onion, and a few cloves of garlic. Again you are looking to have a little bit in each bite. Considering that this ham and bean soup will have 8 cups of liquid in it, that seems like the right amount to me.

Now that you have soaked your beans, prepped the ham, and cut up the veggies it is time to get cooking! Heat a large pot over medium-high heat. When hot, drizzle a little olive oil in the bottom and add in the cut-up vegetables. The goal here is to soften them and get them to release their flavors. Since the next step will deglaze the pot, you can even let them get a little char if you like, I think it helps to bring out more flavor in the soup. Be careful not to get carried away or else it may taste burned.

You guessed the next step, deglazing. That is just a fancy word for scraping up the cooked-on bits of flavor in the bottom of a pan. To do this just add about a cup of the chicken stock to the pot and stir and scrape the bottom. The stuck on bits should loosen up at this point and come off. Once that is done, feel free to add in the rest of the chicken stock, water, the ham bone and ham, soaked beans, salt, pepper, and bay leaf. Bring this to a boil and then reduce the heat to low and simmer for 2 hours. After 2 hours, you can remove the bay leaf and ham bone. Serve and enjoy!

Obviously, you can serve this with anything you would like, however, I recommend serving it with some of our homemade dinner rolls, biscuits, and a homemade caesar salad. I really hope that this meal helps to warm you and your family on a cold night. I love the way that this recipe makes the whole house smell. If you like this recipe or if you have feedback, please leave a comment down below.