Leftover Ham Bean Soup is the easiest and most flavorful soup your family will love. This recipe is made in the slow cooker using a leftover ham bone, vegetables, chicken broth, and a can of white beans.
Why this recipe works:
First of all, it is incredibly easy to make. Other than chopping the vegetables, it's basically a dump-and-go recipe because all of the ingredients are added to the slow cooker. No browning or sauteing required.
I always make this soup after I make a bone-in whole ham. Even if it seems like you got all of the meat off the bone, don't ever throw it away because the bone, along with any leftover meat and fat, make an outstanding soup.
Similar to making roasted beef broth or chicken broth, a leftover ham bone also makes a rich delicious broth.
Here's how to make it:
- This recipe starts by adding the standard soup ingredients to your slow cooker: onion, carrots, celery, garlic, and a bay leaf. Additionally, the leftover ham bone along with any meat and fat are added.
- Now, I could have easily used water, but I wanted to give this soup even more flavor. Why? Because one of the main ingredients is beans and, in my opinion, they can be very bland, so any additional flavor was worth it.
- The other ingredient that gives this soup a tad more flavor was some chili powder.
- This mixture needs to cook on low for at least 4 hours, however it can cook as long as overnight on the low setting.
- Pull the ham bone out and add any pieces of ham back to the soup. Add the drained beans and enjoy!
Cooking tips for perfect results:
- The trick to extracting as much flavor and goodness out of that ham bone is to be sure to add every last scrap, including any fat and liquid that are leftover from cooking the ham, to the crockpot.
- When the soup is done, before you add the beans, there will be a lot of fat. If you want to remove the fat, the easiest way is to refrigerate the soup so that all of the fat congeals at the top. At that point you can remove all of the fat and then add the beans.
- Based on the amount of chicken broth I used, this recipe only makes two really large or four small bowls of soup. Feel free to double all of the ingredients using the same ham bone if you want.
Did you make this recipe? Please leave me a comment to let me know what you think!
Leftover Ham Bean Soup
Ingredients
- 2 medium carrots (chopped)
- 2 ribs celery (chopped)
- 1 small onion (chopped)
- 1 quart chicken broth
- 1 leftover ham bone (along with any meat, fat, and juices that are left)
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 1-2 cloves garlic (minced)
- 1 bay leaf
- 15.5 ounces great northern beans (one can, rinsed and drained)
- freshly ground pepper (to taste)
Instructions
- Add carrots, celery, onion, chicken broth, leftover ham bone, chili powder, garlic, and bay leaf to your slow cooker and cook on low at least 4 hours.
- Remove bay leaf and ham bone along with any fat you don't want to eat. Pick off any pieces of meat and add them back to the soup.
- Add drain beans to the soup and heat to serve.
Notes
Cooking tips for perfect results:
- The trick to extracting as much flavor and goodness out of that ham bone is to be sure to add every last scrap, including any fat and liquid that are leftover from cooking the ham, to the crockpot.
- When the soup is done, before you add the beans, there will be a lot of fat. If you want to remove the fat, the easiest way is to refrigerate the soup so that all of the fat congeals at the top. At that point you can remove all of the fat and then add the beans.
- Based on the amount of chicken broth I used, this recipe only makes two really large or four small bowls of soup. Feel free to double all of the ingredients using the same ham bone if you want.
NUTRITION INFORMATION
This recipe was originally published in April 2015 and has been updated with helpful information and recipe tips.
Anita
This soup is such an amazing way to use leftover ham bone. It's so flavorful and perfect to warm up in the cold weather. 🙂
Dannii
What a great way to use leftover ham. It looks super comforting.
Claudia
This is a great comforting recipe for the colder days!
SHANIKA
This soup looks so flavorful and well seasoned! I'd so turn my leftover ham into this recipe on any day!
Calvin N Rutledge
don't necessarily need the ham bone...is why they sell smoked ham hocks and big chunks of fatback at the store, lower middle class staples
Krissy
Agreed! That's how I make my split pea soup too.