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Is there anything more comforting and satisfying than homemade Navy Bean Soup? This easy stovetop recipe combines soaked dried navy beans with smoked ham hocks, vegetables, broth, seasonings, and a secret ingredient at the end.
If you’re a fan of easy comforting soup, you should take a look at my popular pasta sauce tomato soup with an amazing toasty grilled cheese for dipping!
The result is an incredibly satisfying meal that tastes even better the next day! This recipe can easily be adapted to the slow cooker or Instant Pot and I explain how to do that below.
Table of Contents
Why I love this recipe
- Each bite has a little bit of everything – tender beans that are full of protein and fiber, flavorful vegetables, tasty little bits of ham, and a savory broth
- Freezes well – This is one of those soups that can easily be frozen and reheated for a future meal.
- Easy to make – No cooking experience is needed with this easy-to-follow recipe
- Versatile – Many of the ingredients can easily be swapped out with something else and even the cooking method is easily modified.
Ingredients needed to make navy bean soup
Exact quantities are listed in the recipe card below, but here’s what you’ll need to put on your shopping list.
- dried navy beans
- onion
- carrots
- celery
- garlic
- smoked ham hocks
- chicken broth
- dried oregano and ground nutmeg
- bay leaves
- apple cider vinegar (the secret ingredient)
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
How to make homemade navy bean soup
Soak beans:
- Soak: Rinse and sort the navy beans. Discard any that don’t look right. Soak the dry beans overnight in cold water; about 8 cups of water should be enough. Alternatively, do a quick-soak by covering them with about 2-inches of water in a large pot, bring it to a boil, turn off the heat, let them soak, covered, for an hour.
- Drain and rinse: Drain the navy beans and discard the soaking liquid.
Cook Soup:
- Sauté veggies: In a large stockpot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat on the stove top, sauté the onion, carrot, celery, and garlic in butter. Stir only occasionally to prevent burning. Allow them to cook for about 10 minutes.
- Combine ingredients: Add rinsed soaked beans to the pot. Use a sharp knife to make cuts in the ham hock and place it in the pot. Add the liquid (chicken stock, water, vegetable broth – whatever combination you choose) and scrape the bottom of the pot to loosen anything that may have stuck. Then, add the oregano, nutmeg, and bay leaves. Do not add the apple cider vinegar yet.
- Simmer: Bring soup to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to maintain a simmer. Do not cover. As the soup cooks and the liquid evaporates, heat may need to be reduced to maintain a gentle simmer. After about an hour of cooking, remove the ham hock and transfer it to a cutting board (look ahead to the next step). Cook until beans are tender, about 90 minutes to two hours. It may take less time depending on how soft the beans got after your soak.
- Cut ham: As soon as the ham hock is cool enough to handle, cut any meat into small pieces and return to soup. Discard any skin, fat, and bones.
- Add the secret ingredient: When the beans are completely soft and the soup is ready to eat, stir in the apple cider vinegar. Taste, and add salt and pepper, as desired.
Serve
Remove the bay leaf and enjoy with cornbread.v
How to make navy bean soup in the slow cooker
This is a great dump-and-cook crock pot recipe. Soak the beans first. No need to sauté vegetables. Cook in the crockpot on low for 7 hours or high for 3 hours.
Slow cooker navy bean soup might just be the best thing to come home to on a cold winter day.
How to make navy bean soup in the Instant Pot
Here’s the best part about making this soup in the electric pressure cooker – you don’t need to soak the beans. Instead, you can place the dried navy beans in the pressure cooker with the chicken broth and the ham hocks. Cook on high pressure for 90 minutes.
Then, you can either transfer that mixture to another vessel while you saute the vegetables in the Instant Pot, or you can just add the remaining ingredients and continue cooking the soup on high pressure for another 10 minutes or so.
Substitutions
- Ham bones with some meat can be used instead if the ham hocks, if desired. This is a great option if you have leftover holiday ham from Christmas or Easter.
- You need a total of 12 cups of liquid. I found equal parts of chicken broth and water worked perfectly, but you can also use vegetable broth in addition or in lieu of either the water or chicken broth. Any combination will work as long as the total volume is 12 cups.
- I used only navy beans, but you can easily swap with a mixture of beans or pre-made mixes that can usually be found in the bulk aisle at the grocery store.
Storage and Reheating recommendations
Any leftover soup should be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator and enjoyed within 3-5 days. This navy bean soup recipe freezes well if you’re into meal planning.
To reheat, thaw completely if it was frozen first. Then gently warm over low heat in a pot on the stove or reheat in the microwave in one minute increments while stirring frequently.
FAQs
ou don’t have to, but soaking them reduces their cooking time. Soaking them first will allow the beans to cook at the same rate as everything else in the soup. To soak, dry navy beans must be submerged in water overnight. You can also do a quick soak by covering the dried beans with boiling water for an hour.
No. Navy beans, Great Northern beans, and cannellini beans are all varieties of white beans, but they are different. That being said, you can make this soup with any variety of bean or a combination of beans.
If you don’t want to use ham hocks or can’t find them at your local butcher, you can definitely use leftover ham or a ham steak. The soup will have the most rich flavor if you use a leftover ham bone. This method is a great way to use up your leftovers from your Easter or Christmas ham dinner.
This soup has everything you want in a healthy hearty meal. It is a great source of protein and fiber and will leave you feeling full.
To thicken bean and ham soup, you can process about 2 cups of the soup in the blender and mix it back in or use an immersion blender to partially blend.
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Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 pound dried navy beans
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 large onion diced
- 3 large carrots diced
- 2 stalks celery diced
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1 1/2 pounds smoked ham hocks okay if larger, score with sharp knife
- 6 cups chicken broth see note below
- 6 cups water see note below
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 3 bay leaves
- 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar to be stirred in at the end
- kosher salt Taste before adding salt. Depending on the saltiness of the ham, you might not even need any, but if you do add salt, start with a small amount and adjust after tasting.
- freshly ground black pepper to taste
Instructions
Soak beans:
- Soak: Rinse and sort the navy beans. Discard any that don't look right. Soak overnight in cold water. Alternatively, do a quick-soak by covering them with about 2-inches of water in a large pot, bring it to a boil, turn off the heat, let them soak, covered, for an hour.
- Drain and rinse: Drain the navy beans and discard the soaking liquid.
Cook Soup:
- Sauté veggies: In a large stockpot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat, saute the onion, carrot, celery, and garlic in butter. Stir only occasionally to prevent burning. Allow to cook for about 10 minutes.
- Combine ingredients: Add rinsed soaked beans to the pot. Use a sharp knife to make cuts in the ham hock and place it in the pot. Add the liquid (chicken broth, water, vegetable broth – whatever combination you choose), oregano, nutmeg, and bay leaves. Do not add the apple cider vinegar.
- Simmer: Bring soup to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to maintain a simmer. Do not cover. As the soup cooks and the liquid evaporates, heat may need to be reduced to maintain a gentle simmer. After about an hour of cooking, remove the ham hock and transfer it to a cutting board (look ahead to next step). Cook until beans are tender, about 90 minutes to two hours. It may take less time depending on how soft the beans got after your soak.
- Cut ham: As soon as the ham hock is cool enough to handle, cut any meat into small pieces and return to soup. Discard any skin, fat, and bones.
- Add the secret ingredient: When the beans are completely soft and the soup is ready to eat, stir in the apple cider vinegar. Taste, and add salt and pepper, as desired. To thicken, you can process about 2 cups of the soup in the blender and mix it back in.
- To serve: Remove bay leaves and enjoy with cornbread.
Notes
- Ham bones with some meat can be used instead if the ham hocks, if desired. This is a great option if you have leftover holiday ham from Christmas or Easter.
- You need a total of 12 cups of liquid. I found equal parts of chicken broth and water worked perfectly, but you can also use vegetable broth in addition or in lieu of either the water or chicken broth. Any combination will work as long as the total volume is 12 cups.
- I used only navy beans, but you can easily swap with a mixture of beans or pre-made mixes that can usually be found in the bulk aisle at the grocery store.
- Soaking the beans: You do not have to soak the beans, however, it is highly recommended because it shortens the amount of time they need to cook. You can soften them overnight in cold water or do a quick soak by bringing them to a boil, removing them from heat, and letting them sit, covered, for an hour. Always discard the soaking water and rinse the beans before adding them to the soup.
- Canned beans are an option if they are drained and rinsed, however, they are not preferred because of how soft they are.
- To thicken: Run about 2 cups of the cooked bean soup through the blender and stir into the soup.
- Optional – add tomatoes: Some people like to add a can of tomatoes to their navy bean soup. If you do, you must add them after the beans have cooked. If tomatoes are added early in the recipe, the acidity in the tomatoes may result in crunchy beans, no matter how long you cook them. Additional salt will also be needed.
- Use less liquid: If you would prefer the consistency to be closer to chili or baked beans, reduce the total amount of liquid from 12 cups down to 8 cups.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
One of my husband’s favorites. He is always asking me to make it. It’s delicious!
Came out wonderful. I admit I was skeptical about the vinegar ruining the recipe but it came out great.
I hear ya! If you over do it with vinegar, you can ruin it, but it definitely adds a lot to this recipe! I’m glad you had faith in me!!!
The apple cider and the nutmeg give this a step up from any other soup I have tried… Great recipe
So glad you liked it!