Hearty Ham and Bean Soup

The holidays are coming, which means leftovers are coming too! I don’t know about you, but we always have quite a bit of food leftover after a big holiday meal.

Even though I’m not a huge leftover person, I am with holiday foods.  They’re just so delicious, and so special, because we normally don’t make them all throughout the year.

So of course we want to stretch every last delicious bite out of them!  Naturally there’s the standard, just have another holiday meal out of the leftovers, and maybe a traditional turkey/ham sandwich, but after a while, you just want something different.

This ham and bean soup is the perfect way to repurpose not only the leftover ham pieces, but the ham bone itself too! If you’ve never used up that ham bone, you’re in for a treat.

So much flavor comes from simmering that bone, but don’t worry if you don’t have one, or are making this soup without leftover ham. I’ve detailed down below how to make soup without one without sacrificing too much flavor.

How to make ham and bean soup?

This is just an overview; the full ingredients and directions are in the recipe card toward the bottom of this post.

1. Brown ham bone. This is an extra step, but one I think adds a ton of flavor.
2. Soften veggies. Cook the carrot, celery and onion until softened. Cook the garlic for just a bit at the end.
3. Add it all in. Add in the beans, diced ham, spices, broth and water. Stir, then nestle in the ham bone.
4. Bring to a boil. With the lid on, heat until soup comes to a gentle boil.
5. Simmer. Reduce heat and simmer, about 30 minutes.
6. Remove bone. Take out the bone and bay leaves and serve.

Variations of this recipe

• No ham bone – this soup is amazing year-round, so you may want to make it when you don’t have a leftover ham bone sitting around. Look below for all the details, in a green box titled “making ham and bean soup without a ham bone”.
• Beans – I used cannellini beans, but Great Northern or navy beans are a great substitute.
• Dried beans – if you have dried beans on hand, you can use those in this recipe. You’ll need a 1 pound bag (16 oz) of dried cannellini, great northern, or navy beans. Increase the amount of water by 2 cups (so you’ll have 4 cups of chicken broth, and 4 cups of water). Bring to a boil, then simmer, with the lid cracked, for about 2 hours, stirring occasionally to prevent burning. This will result in a thicker soup.
• Thicker – there are a few ways to thicken this soup. First, you can cook it down further, until it’s as thick as you’d like. Second, you can mash some of the beans. Use a potato masher for this. Thirdly, you can add a slurry. To a small mixing bowl, combine 2 Tbsp cornstarch with 3 Tbsp of cold water. Stir together until smooth, then stir that mixture into the soup and cook, stirring occasionally, until thickened.
• Creamy – to make this a creamy-style soup, stir in some heavy cream, or softened cream cheese towards the end of cooking. If using cream cheese, add cream cheese to a small mixing bowl, then add a ladle or two of the broth from the pot and whisk the cream cheese and broth together. Then stir that mixture into the soup. This keeps you from ending up with little clumps of cream cheese in the soup.

Making ham and bean soup ahead of time

There are some recipes that just taste better and better the longer they sit. Soup can definitely be one of those recipes!

This soup can be made entirely ahead of time if you’d like! Just reheat it however you’d like, adding a splash of chicken broth or water if it thickened up too much.

You can also prep ahead for this recipe (which is my favorite thing to do for all our meals).

• Vegetables. The carrots, celery, onion, and garlic can be chopped ahead of time and stored in the refrigerator until ready to cook.
• Ham. The ham can be diced ahead of time and stored in the refrigerator until ready to cook.
• Spices. Even the spices (Italian seasoning, cumin, red pepper flakes and pepper) can be combined and stored at room temperature until ready to cook.

Storage

Leftover soup should be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 3-4 days.

Freezing

This soup can also be frozen for longer storage. Make sure the soup is completely cooled, then transfer to freezer containers and freeze for up to 3 months.

Thaw in the refrigerator and reheat however you’d like.