White Bean and Ham Soup

Soups are a staple around our home this time of year. This White Bean and Ham Soup satisfies the hungriest of appetites with only 7 ingredients.

I use Great Northern Beans in this recipe. You can use whatever mild textured white bean that you like.  Navy beans could be a good substitute.

Make sure that you plan ahead to soak these beans overnight. If you accidentally forget to presoak your beans then you can plan a quick soak.

How to quick soak your beans to cook today:

Rinse the beans and place them into a large pot with 8 cups of water.  Bring the water to a boil uncovered.  Allow the beans to boil for 2 minutes and then remove them from the heat.  Cover and allow them to sit for at least an hour. Now you can drain them and use them as you would if they had been soaked overnight.

This tip has saved our dinner plans several times over the years.

You can add other seasoning to your soup if you prefer. We like to keep it simple. The carrots, onion, and celery add so much depth of flavor that the thyme and bouillon just make everything perfect.

My family doesn’t particularly love celery. I know we should. But we don’t.

We do really enjoy the flavor that celery brings to soups and stews. To get that flavor, we add the celery stalks whole to the pot and then easily remove them before serving the soup. This way we get all the delicious flavor without the unwelcome diced celery bits in the final serving bowl.

White Bean and Ham Soup

People who don't like soup love this. I'm not joking. It's universally loved by all hungry people.

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Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour

Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes

Servings: 8 servings

Author: Lauren Cobello

Ingredients

• 1 pound white beans rinsed and soaked overnight
• 1 pound ham diced
• 1/2 onion diced
• 1 cup carrots diced
• 1 stalk celery
• 1 tablespoon dried thyme
• 8 cups water
• 4 cubes beef or vegetable bouillon

Instructions

• Combine all the ingredients into a large stock pot.
• Bring to a boil and reduce heat to simmer.
• Simmer 1 hour or until beans are tender.
• Enjoy!

Notes

If you prefer a creamier soup, then you can accomplish that without any extra ingredients.

When the soup is fully cooked, simply remove 4 cups of the soup to a food processor or blender. (Make sure your appliances were meant to be used with hot liquids before using them in this step.) Blend the soup until smooth and then stir it back into the larger pot. This will easily create a creamy texture with no added ingredients!

Have you grabbed my freezer meal plans, yet? I might be biased but I think they are pretty amazing! They have saved our dinner hour for years now. Check them out!