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My White Bean and Ham Soup Recipe is made with Great Northern beans, plenty of diced ham, and lots of veggies to make for a hearty soup! This is perfect for leftover ham!
I’m allllll about Easter dinner, you guys.
So much good stuff happening.
Not only is there a giant ham to be devoured, you’ve also got a table full of sides like my cheesy scalloped potatoes or crockpot hashbrown casserole. My Jiffy corn casserole is always on the Easter table. For dessert, we never skip my blackberry cobbler.
Of course, we also enjoy the Easter egg hunt with the kids.
My kids are practically grown at this point, so they’re both pretty much over the egg hunt, but last year we skipped the candy and stuffed the eggs with money. They hunted with gusto. 😉
Anyway, Easter is fabulous and we love it for many reasons, but ESPECIALLY for that leftover ham!
Leftover ham is a dream for making soup! And I’m pretty sure this white bean soup with ham is just the best.
Easy enough to make, and so economical using leftover ham and dried beans…of course, you can also buy a package of diced ham and use that too!
Be sure to serve this up with our sweet cornbread recipe. The two go together perfectly!
Ham & Bean Soup Ingredients:
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Great Northern Beans – These large white beans are perfect for this ham & bean soup recipe!
Ham – You’ll need some cooked, diced ham for the soup. We love to use leftovers from a holiday gathering for this recipe, but if you don’t have it and want to make this really simple you can get the pre-diced ham from the store!
Vegetables – We’ll add some onion, carrot, celery, and garlic to the soup which will add even more flavor when slow cooked with the ham and beans!
Seasoning – Some salt, some pepper, and some Italian seasoning! You can add more or less to suit your taste.
My Favorite Dutch Oven!
This gorgeous Dutch oven is perfect for making soup, pot roast, and more. It goes from stove to oven as needed and looks pretty enough to leave out on your stovetop as decoration.
What We Love About This Recipe!
This is an easy recipe to put on the stove and forget about for a few hours! And using leftover ham in a recipe is about as easy as it gets. This white bean and ham soup is so hearty and filling I’m sure you will enjoy it!
How to Make Ham & Bean Soup:
Prep Work: Rinse the dried beans and sort out any potential rocks or debris. This is a no soak recipe.
Dice up the onion, carrots, and celery, mince the garlic, and set those aside while you start heating up a large stock pot on the stove with some olive oil.
Sauté: Once the oil is hot, saute the veggies until soft and fragrant.
Simmer: Add the beans, Italian seasoning, and water to the pot and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer, cover, and cook until the beans are tender – about 2 hours.
Add the Ham: Add the ham, salt, and pepper, and cook for another 30 minutes to an hour. The beans should be tender and creamy, the soup hot, and you should definitely have a batch of my sweet cornbread recipe ready to serve with this white bean and ham soup!
Helpful Tip!
If the soup is too thick for your liking you can always add more water or even some chicken broth to help thin it out. And if you’re looking for a thicker consistency, just add a little cornstarch!
This ham and white bean soup is a staple in my house. If we don’t have leftover ham in the fridge, we’ll just grab some already diced ham at the grocery story. Such an easy meal and so comforting and tasty!
No time for cornbread? Try our air fryer frozen breadsticks on the side! Soup and breadsticks are a perfect combination.
FAQs:
Cooking dried beans might seem a little intimidating the first time you try it, but it’s really quite easy. First, you’ll empty your package of beans into a colander and sort through them for any rocks or debris. Rinse them well.
A lot of people prefer to soak their beans overnight, but it’s usually not necessary. This white bean soup features no-soak beans that come out nice and tender, so give my method a try!
Nope, but those are my favorite! Cannellini beans and Navy beans are also great choices for a ham and white bean soup.
MORE FAVORITE SOUP RECIPES!
- Tuscan White Bean Soup: My Tuscan white bean soup is always a hit, if you need some more white bean soup ideas.
- Keto Vegetable Soup: This vegetable soup is a hearty, filling, and nutritious meal for any weeknight! It’s loaded with all kinds of low carb veggies.
- Instant Pot Potato Soup: This potato soup is thick, creamy, and fully loaded with cheddar and bacon. And it’s so quick & easy in the Instant Pot!
- Crockpot Chicken & Rice Soup: This recipe is perfect for your slow cooker! It makes the meat tender, and keeps the rice soft and full of all the soup’s flavors!
- Crack Chicken Soup: You can probably guess by the name that this soup is irresistible! It’s cheesy and packed with chicken, bacon, and ranch flavor!
White Bean and Ham Soup
Ingredients
- 20 ounces dried Great Northern Beans
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 medium sweet onion
- 3 stalks celery
- 2 carrots
- 2 cloves garlic
- 8 cups water
- 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
- 2 cups cooked diced ham
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 2 teaspoons ground pepper
Instructions
- Rinse and sort through the beans, discarding any rocks or debris. Set aside.
- Dice the onion, celery, and carrots. Mince the garlic.
- Add the oil to a large stock pot over medium heat. When hot, stir in the onion, celery, and carrot.
- Cook vegetables until softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook 30 more seconds.
- Add the water and Italian seasoning to the pot along with the dried beans.
- Bring to a boil over medium heat, reduce to a simmer, and cover with a lid. Cook, stirring every 30 minutes, for 2 hours or until beans are mostly tender.
- Add the ham, salt, and pepper to the soup. Continue simmering for 30 minutes to an hour more, or until beans are fully cooked.
- Add additional water or chicken stock to the pot to thin the soup to your desired consistency just before serving. Taste and season with additional salt and pepper, if needed.
Tips & Notes:
Nutrition Information:
This recipe was originally published in March 2018. It was updated with new photos and a video in April 2022.
Betty Meyers says
The recipe called for Great Northern beans and said nothing about a specific brand and/or seasoning packet. I bought Goya Great Northern Beans, which is a brand I’ve used multiple times in the past. No seasoning packet… just dried beans. I followed the recipe to a T, but used half chicken stock and half water; and I was disappointed in the lack of flavor. I used a ham steak from the freezer, and it wasn’t until I went on to the web site to see what others posted (trying to figure out where I went wrong) that I saw reference to a seasoning packet. I’m trying to doctor it up with seasoning, but leaving that out of the instructions was not good.
Karly says
Hi Betty! Sorry this one wasn’t as flavorful as you’d like. We used to recommend Hurst’s beans for this, which came with a seasoning packet. But readers were having a hard time finding them so we added our own seasonings.
Val Hesslink says
I made this all the time. Absolutely love this. The only thing different that I did was used a meaty ham bone. As long as it was a little smokey any ham will do.
Donna Fast says
Easy to make and so good! Made fried potatoes with it and Jiffy Cornbread!
Karly says
So glad you enjoyed it, Donna!
Brian says
I still had a lot of water at the end of 3 hrs cooking with the lid on
Karly says
There should still be plenty of liquid – it’s meant to be soup. It’ll thicken up as you cook uncovered.
Heather Jones says
I have made this recipe and this and it is fantastic. I bought the beans back from USA unfortunately I haven’t been able to find them here in the UK. Can anyone advise what white beans I can use.
Thank you
Karly says
Hi Heather! You’d want to use Great Northern beans. 🙂
Heather Jones says
If I visit the USA again fingers cross next August I have booked to go to Boston I will make sure I buy plenty. We have butter beans here which are a yellow colour but now the same. thank you for taking the time to reply
Take care
Karly says
I believe cannellini beans are the same as Great Northern, if you have those available! 🙂
Carmen Banks says
If you can’t find Great Northern Beans, try Navy beans. They are smaller and shouldn’t cook quite as long. But to me, the taste is about the same.
Sue Irvine says
Water or chicken broth? Your recipe does not have chicken broth listed.
Karly says
The recipe calls for 8 cups of water. You can add additional at the end to thin the soup, or add broth if you prefer.
Carrie Maguire says
The flavor was really good; however, it had little broth after cooking time. My husband said “oh this looks like a nice bowl of beans” as he sat down. LOL. Maybe increase the chicken broth by another 1 cup, and reduce the amount of beans by 1/2. That may help it be more soup-y.
Karly says
Oh, that’s strange. Did you cover the pot while it was boiling?
Carrie Maguire says
Yes, I did. I cooked for 2 hours and then after I added the ham and seasonings I cooked for another 30 minutes. I just now see in your recipe at the end to “add more broth as desired”. I didn’t have any more but will do this in the future. Even water would be okay to add it seems. Thanks for the recipe!
Teresa says
Are these beans not as soft as a pinto beans? I’m having a tough time eating them as it feels like they’re not cooked through. I did put them in the crockpot for 7 hours on high.
Karly says
The beans would be tender when they’re cooked through. Sounds like maybe they weren’t cooked long enough. Also, if you add salt to the beans while cooking, they’ll be more tough. If you added in the seasoning packet right at the start, that might be part of the issue.
Laurie says
I have not tried this recipe, but in my experience of cooking dried beans I would suggest soaking the beans in water overnight and draining before adding to the soup pot, then cook as directed.
Gayle Dodge says
Are there instructions for making this in a crock pot?
Karly says
I would do this on high for 5 hours and then add the ham and seasonings for another hour on high. Haven’t tried it myself, but this is how I do other bean soup recipes in the crockpot, so I think it’d be good. 🙂
Penny S Cochran says
I’m going to attempt this sometime this week. Any thoughts on doing it in the instant pot?
Karly says
I have a similar recipe for the Instant Pot that you could use as a guide to convert this one, if you like. Here it is: https://www.bunsinmyoven.com/ham-and-bean-soup/
Penny says
I did it! So delicious. Thank you!
Karly says
Yay! Glad it worked out!
Diane says
Is this the hurst great northern beans with ham packet seasoning?
Karly says
Yes, that’s correct.
Pam says
I usually make ham and beans soup with the 15 bean and barley soup package. But, I want to try your white bean recipe. Next trip to the store I’ll grab some and give it a try.
I usually either serve with buttermilk cornbread or hush puppies.
I love to cook big batches (just my husband and I left) and give good size servings to family, friends, and sometime just acquaintances. Last weekend a furniture delivery guy smelled my soup cooking and just kept saying how wonderful everything smelled so of course, I invited him to stay for lunch. He was at place in his schedule he could take a break so we had the joy of his company. My mom always taught us to be prepared for the unexpected and we have been blessed by many.
Karly says
Hope you enjoy this soup recipe, Pam! I bet your hush puppies are amazing with this! 🙂
Holly says
I couldn’t find that brand of beans in our local store. Can you give me alternates for the seasoning packet? Or tell me what is in it?
Cathy says
I don’t have this brand of beans. What’s in the seasoning packet? Thank you!
Karly says
I don’t know exactly what is in the seasoning packet. I would add in some garlic powder, onion powder, smoked paprika, and additional salt.
Teresa says
Parsley, Celery salt & White pepper, along with onion & garlic powder, Hungarian Paprika, really makes it.
Tammy says
love your recipes.
Karly says
Thanks, Tammy!