Slow Cooker Ham and Bean Soup is made with Northern beans, leftover ham and ham-bone, carrot, celery, chicken broth, yellow onion and fresh herbs for a flavorful slow cooked meal.
Slow Cooker Ham and Bean Soup is one of those traditional comfort foods that the whole family loves. We always make a big batch after the holidays with our leftover ham and eat it for a couple meals because this makes at least 12 servings so plan on eating it for a couple days or invite some friends over to help you eat it! Trust me, anyone would want an invite to polish off this soup.
Slow Cooker Ham and Bean Soup
Slow Cooker Ham and Bean Soup is so aromatic while cooking all day thanks to the fresh thyme, rosemary and bay leaf. Your house is going to smell wonderful and this soup tastes as good as it smells!
This soup starts with a great ham! Try our recipe for Mustard Glazed Ham for the perfect holiday entree that will also works for this recipe the next day.
Tips & Tricks
Rinse the Ham
For the holidays, a glazed ham is normally used. These hams usually have a lot of honey and sugars so make to to rinse all the off before placing it in the crockpot.
Salt
Wait until the soup has completely finished cooking before adding any salt. The ham is already pretty salty and each ham can differ in the saltiness level so do a taste test before serving to determine how much, if any, salt needs to be added.
Slow Cooker Ham and Bean Soup
- Yield: 12 servings 1x
Print Recipe
Pin RecipeDescription
Slow Cooker Ham and Bean Soup is made with Northern beans, leftover ham and ham-bone, carrot, celery, chicken broth, yellow onion and fresh herbs for a flavorful slow cooked meal.
Ingredients
- 1 leftover meaty ham bone (rinsed)
- 1 pound dry Northern beans (soaked overnight)
- 1 yellow onion (diced)
- 3 celery stalks (diced)
- 3 carrots (peeled and diced)
- 48 ounces low-sodium chicken broth
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 sprig thyme
- 1 sprig rosemary
- 1 teaspoon ground pepper
- salt to taste
Instructions
- Soak the beans overnight, rinse and place in crockpot.
- Rinse your leftover meaty ham bone (if previously cooked with sugars, honey, syrup) and dice up some of the meatier parts. Place the ham and bone into crockpot.
- Rinse the celery and carrots. Peel carrots. Dice and place into crockpot.
- Add a diced onion.
- Dump in 48 ounces of low-sodium chicken broth.
- Top with rosemary, thyme and bay leaf.
- Add a pinch of pepper.
- Cook on low for 8 hours.
- Remove rosemary, thyme and bay leaf.
- Remove the ham bone and shred the remainder of the meat. Toss the bone and put shredded ham back into crockpot.
- Mash some of the beans on the side of the crockpot to thicken the soup.
- Stir and salt to taste. Wait to add salt until the end of cooking because the ham is usually salty enough and added salt may not be needed.
- Category: dinner
★★★★★
This is definitely the time of year when I make a lot of soup and this is next on my list. I like it mostly because it’s a slow cooker recipe but it’s also looks so hearty and comforting. Great post!
★★★★★
Ham and bean soup is a big comfort soup for me.
I love Northern Beans, so I was excited about this recipe! Let me tell you, it didn’t let me down! So delicious and perfect for our big family! Thanks so much for sharing!
★★★★★
How many is this soup designed to serve?
We are a family of 4 and get 2 days out of the soup so you can easily serve 8 a generous portion.