Soup

Country Ham & Bean Soup

Smoky ham and soft beans in a savoury broth. What a leftover holiday ham is for.

Prep 8 min LOW 7–8 hours HIGH 4 hours Serves 8

Country Ham & Bean Soup, finished and plated — Serving suggestion

Ham and beans is what Southern kitchens do with a holiday ham, and it is one of the few dishes that is genuinely better made from leftovers than from something you bought for the purpose.

The bone is the secret. If you have one, use it — it gives the broth a body that diced ham alone cannot. Pull it out before serving and strip whatever meat is left back into the pot.

Everything else is a can of beans and a packet. This is the cheapest, easiest thing here, and it is the one people ask for the recipe to.

Why you'll love it

Uses up the holiday ham.

Bone included. That is the whole point.

Cheapest soup in the book.

A can of beans, some ham and one packet.

No dairy at all.

One of the few. Clean, smoky and savoury.

Freezes better than anything else here.

Make a double batch and put half away.

What's already in the packet

Pork bouillonOnionGarlicCelery powderSmoked paprikaBlack pepperThymeBay leafBrown sugar powder

Smoked paprika and thyme over a pork base, with just enough brown sugar to balance the salt from the ham.

Choose your setting

Recommended

LOW · 7–8 hours

Low and slow gives collagen time to melt and flavors time to build. It is the setting this recipe was written for.

HIGH · 4 hours

For when you started late. It gets dinner done, but the texture is better on LOW.

Done at 140°F

The ham is already cooked — you are heating it through and letting it flavour the broth. The beans should be soft but whole.

You'll Need

2 lbs Diced cooked ham
6 cups Water
1 packet Cook SLO Country Ham & Bean Soup
2 cans (15 oz) Navy or great northern beans
2 cups Carrots, celery and onion

Pick your protein

2 lbs

Diced cooked ham

Ham hock plus 1 lb diced ham

Leftover ham bone with meat

Chicken 165°F, ground sausage 160°F, beef cubes 190°F, cooked ham 140°F

Add vegetables

Thick-cut carrots (fresh or frozen)Celery chunks (fresh or frozen)Sliced onion (fresh or frozen)Diced potatoes (fresh or frozen)Cabbage wedgesCanned navy beansCanned great northern beansGreen beans (fresh or frozen)Canned corn

Thick-cut carrots (fresh or frozen), celery chunks (fresh or frozen), sliced onion (fresh or frozen) and diced potatoes (fresh or frozen) at the start, on the bottom; cabbage wedges at the start; green beans (fresh or frozen) in the last hour; canned navy beans and canned great northern beans at the start, or the last hour if you want them whole; canned corn in the last thirty minutes.

When to add what

When	Add	Why
At the start, on the bottom	Thick-cut carrots (fresh or frozen)Celery chunks (fresh or frozen)Sliced onion (fresh or frozen)Diced potatoes (fresh or frozen)	Root vegetables cook slower than meat. They belong closest to the heat, and they hold the meat up out of the liquid. Cut everything an inch and a half or larger — smaller pieces disintegrate.
At the start, to soften into the sauce	Cabbage wedges	These break down and give their flavour to the pot. Right for a gravy or a fajita, wrong if you want them to hold their shape.
Last hour	Green beans (fresh or frozen)	Any longer and green beans go grey, squash turns to water, and pineapple falls apart.
Canned beans, drained and rinsed	Canned navy beansCanned great northern beans	At the start for chili and stews, where they take on the seasoning and a few break down to thicken the pot. In the last hour if you want them whole.
Canned corn and hominy, drained	Canned corn	Last 30 minutes. Fully cooked already, so anything longer turns it to mush.

Two ways to do this

If you're home

Follow the timing table above and add things when they're due.

About an hour is all you need

If you're out all day

Put in at the start as normal: thick-cut carrots (fresh or frozen), celery chunks (fresh or frozen), sliced onion (fresh or frozen), diced potatoes (fresh or frozen), cabbage wedges, canned navy beans and canned great northern beans. These need the full cook anyway.

Add green beans (fresh or frozen) and canned corn when you walk in the door. Forty-five minutes to an hour on LOW is enough for all of it, and it will taste better than if it had cooked all day.

If you would rather not touch it at all, put everything in at the start and use frozen where you can. It will be softer than the timing above intends and the greens will lose their colour, but it will taste good and dinner is ready when you walk in.

Frozen is the better choice for a long day. Already cut, holds its shape better than fresh over eight or nine hours, and goes in straight from the bag with no thawing. Frozen diced onion and pepper strips remove the only real prep this recipe has.

Beans — use canned

Every recipe in this book that uses beans uses canned beans. Drain and rinse them, and they are ready to go. Do not substitute dry beans.

Canned beans are fully cooked during canning, so they are safe and they only need warming through. Dry red kidney beans are a different matter: raw, they contain a lectin called phytohaemagglutinin, and the FDA is explicit that a slow cooker does not get hot enough to destroy it. The toxin needs boiling at 212°F for at least ten minutes, and a crock pot on LOW often reaches only about 167°F — hot enough to soften the bean, not hot enough to make it safe. As few as four or five undercooked kidney beans can cause severe vomiting within a few hours. Canned beans have none of this problem.

Canned beans	Drain and rinse	Rinsing removes the starchy canning liquid, which otherwise clouds a soup and dulls the flavour.
When to add them	Start, or the last hour	At the start for chili and stews — they take on the seasoning and a few break down, which thickens the pot. In the last hour if you want them to hold their shape.
Canned baked or refried beans	Last 30 minutes	Already sweetened or seasoned. Added early they scorch against the crock wall.
Dry beans of any kind	Not in this book	If you want the savings, cook them fully on the stove first — soak five hours, drain, boil thirty minutes in fresh water — then use them in place of canned. Two cups cooked equals roughly one 15-ounce can.

One 15-ounce can drained gives about one and a half cups of beans. Most recipes here want one or two cans.

Two 15-ounce cans of navy or great northern beans, drained and rinsed, in the last hour. Added at the start they go to paste. Not to be confused with any green beans you add — those are a vegetable and the warning below does not apply to them. Taste before adding salt. Ham, bouillon and canned beans together are already a lot.

Corn

Canned corn	Last 30 minutes	Drain first. It is fully cooked already, so it only needs heating — added early it goes to mush.
Canned fire-roasted corn	Last 30 minutes	Same timing. Worth seeking out for the smoky note, especially in chili and anything southwest.
Canned hominy	Last 30 minutes	Drain and rinse. Bigger and chewier than corn, and what turns a pork stew into posole.

Tonight's Plan

1
Put the carrots, celery and onion in the crock pot first.
They cook slowest, so they belong on the bottom.
2
Add the ham on top. If you have a bone, put it in whole.
It is already cooked — you are heating it and letting it season the broth.
3
Pour in 6 cups of water and sprinkle the whole packet over everything.
Unsalted water or low-sodium broth only. The ham is salty.
4
Put the lid on.
Add the beans in the last hour.

Vegetables

Stir in the drained beans, cover, and cook one more hour.

Added at the start they go to mush. One hour warms them and lets them take on the smoke.

Pull out the bone, strip any meat back in, and taste before adding salt.

This is the step people skip, and the reason this soup is sometimes too salty.

Stirring

Leave the lid on

Nothing in this one settles or scorches, and there is plenty of liquid moving. Every lift of the lid drops the temperature ten to fifteen degrees and costs about twenty minutes. There is nothing to check.

Swaps and add-ins

Use a ham hock.

One hock alongside the diced ham. It adds a depth you cannot get any other way.

Add potatoes.

Two cups, diced, at the start. Makes it a fuller one-pot meal.

Add cabbage.

Wedges in the last hour. Very traditional and it soaks up the broth.

Mash some of the beans.

Against the side of the pot at the end. Thickens the broth without any flour.

Tips for success

Taste before you add any salt. Ham plus bouillon plus canned beans is already a lot of salt. This is the recipe most likely to end up over-seasoned.
Use the bone if you have one. More collagen, more body, better broth. Worth the two minutes of pulling it out later.
Beans in the last hour. Canned beans are already cooked. Seven hours turns them to paste.
Drop in a liner before anything else. Smooth it against the sides and fold the edges over the rim. When you're done, lift it out and throw it away — the crock never needs scrubbing.

Finish it right

A splash of apple cider vinegar.

Two teaspoons at the end. Smoky and salty needs acid, and almost nobody does it.

Fresh cracked pepper.

Generously. This soup is savoury and pepper gives it a third note.

Chopped fresh parsley or green onion.

Colour and freshness against a very beige bowl.

Serve it over

In bowls with cornbreadWith buttered saltinesWith a vinegar slawWith crusty bread

Tomorrow night

It is better on day two.

The smoke settles into the beans.

Mash it into a thick stew.

Blend half and stir it back in.

Ham and bean pot pie.

Thicken, pour into a crust, bake.

Over cornbread.

Crumble cornbread into the bowl and spoon it over. Southern and correct.

Keeping it

Fridge

Airtight, up to 4 days. Better on day two.

Freezer

3 months. Freezes better than anything else in the book.

Reheating

Stove or microwave. Add a splash of water if it thickened.

Questions people ask

Recipe card