It’s officially soup season, and this easy Ham and Bean Soup is loaded with tender canned white beans, colorful veggies, and savory chunks of browned ham, all in a thick, creamy broth made without any actual cream or dairy. It’s a great way to use up leftover holiday ham, but you certainly don’t need to wait for a holiday to make it. Just 8 basic ingredients plus a few seasonings make this hearty, budget-friendly soup, and it’s ready in less than an hour.
“This is excellent. I added leftover chopped up asparagus and four cups of the chicken broth. If ham is not an option, smoked kielbasa is great too. I topped the soup with mozzarella and smoked parmigiana cheese.” — Julie W.
How to Build Big Flavor in Less Time
Traditional ham and bean soups often start with dried beans and a ham bone that simmer together for hours. And there’s definitely a time and place for that! But this version is designed to skip the soaking and the long wait. Using canned cannellini beans and fully cooked ham means the ingredients are already cooked, so you can spend your time building flavor instead.
One key technique is browning the ham before adding anything else. This gives the edges a little color and leaves behind tasty browned bits on the bottom of the pot (called fond). When the onion, carrots, celery, and garlic go in, their natural moisture loosens those bits and pulls that extra flavor into the soup. Sautéing the vegetables also softens them and brings out a little natural sweetness.
For the broth, pureéing one can of beans with its liquid thickens the soup and adds a lovely creaminess without flour, cornstarch, or heavy cream. The other two cans stay whole for a chunky texture, and after the initial flavor-building stages, everything comes together with just 15 minutes of simmering.
Recipe Success Tips
Give the ham a chance to brown. Cook the diced ham in oil over medium heat for 3–5 minutes, until the edges are lightly browned and golden-brown bits form on the bottom of the pot. This builds the salty ham flavor you’d normally get from simmering a ham bone for hours, just in much less time. If those bits start turning very dark, lower the heat so they don’t burn.
Blend one can of beans, liquid and all. Purée one can of cannellini beans with its canning liquid, then drain the other two. The smooth beans thicken the broth, and the whole beans give the soup its chunky texture. No blender? You can thoroughly mash that first can with a potato masher or fork instead. It won’t be as smooth, but this is a chunky soup anyway.
Let the soup boil and thicken. The 15-minute boil allows some of the broth to evaporate while the puréed beans thicken the soup. Stir the pot every few minutes, scraping along the bottom, to keep the beans from sticking. If it gets thicker than you’d like, stir in a little more broth or water until you reach your preferred consistency.
Taste before adding salt. Cooked ham is pretty salty, especially when it’s cured, and chicken broth adds even more seasoning. Wait until the ham goes back into the pot before tasting and adjusting. You may not need any extra salt, but a little extra black pepper on each bowl is a nice finishing touch.
What Kind of Ham Can I Use?
For this quick ham and bean soup, fully cooked ham (or leftover cooked ham from another meal) works best rather than a ham hock. Because the beans and other ingredients cook quickly, there’s no need to spend hours simmering a ham bone to flavor the broth. Thicker pieces work best because they hold their shape and develop nicely browned edges when sautéed.
Boneless vs. Bone-In Ham Steaks
Both of these ham steaks are fully cooked and work well in this recipe:
- Boneless ham steak: The easiest choice. There’s no bone to work around, and the thick slices are easy to cut into bite-sized pieces. You can buy ham steaks in smaller packs or use a package of fully cooked, boneless, sliced ham.
- Bone-in ham steak: This works just as well once you’ve removed the bone and any tough rind. Just remember that you need 1 lb. of usable ham, so buy a little extra to account for the weight of the bone.
What About Other Types of Ham?
Fully cooked boneless spiral-cut ham and smoked shank portion ham can both work, but these larger cuts are better saved for a holiday centerpiece and the leftovers used in this soup. Ham slices are cheaper, easier, and all you need for this quick recipe.
Ham hocks are a different story — they’re better suited to traditional bean soups that simmer for hours. The long simmer gives the connective tissue time to soften and the smoky flavor time to develop. If you’d prefer to make soup using a ham hock and dried beans, a navy bean soup recipe that uses a smoked ham hock and takes over two hours of cooking (plus soaking time for the beans) is a better fit.
Ham and Bean Soup
Course: Dinner, Lunch, Main Course, Soup Cuisine: American Total Cost: $11.47 recipe / $2.87 serving Prep Time: 15 minutes Cook Time: 40 minutes Total Time: 55 minutes Servings: 4 (1.5 cups each) Calories: 385 kcal
Ingredients
- 1 yellow onion, medium dice (2 cups) — $0.95
- 3 carrots, medium dice (2 cups) — $0.75
- 3 ribs celery, medium dice (2 cups) — $0.61
- 2 garlic cloves, minced (1 Tbsp) — $0.12
- 1 lb. cooked ham, medium dice — $5.92*
- 1 Tbsp cooking oil — $0.04
- 3 (15.5 oz.) cans cannellini beans — $2.76**
- ¼ tsp dried thyme — $0.02
- ¼ tsp freshly cracked black pepper — $0.04
- 2 cups chicken broth, or more as needed — $0.26***
Instructions
- Gather and prepare all ingredients. Dice the onion, peel and slice the carrots, slice the celery, and mince the garlic. Dice the ham into bite-sized chunks.
- Add the ham and cooking oil to a large soup pot. Sauté the ham for 3–5 minutes over medium heat, or until it achieves a decent amount of browning. Remove the browned ham to a clean bowl.
- Add the onion, carrots, celery, and garlic to the pot in place of the ham. Sauté the vegetables for about 5 minutes over medium heat, or until the onions have softened. As you stir, allow the moisture released from the vegetables to help dissolve the browned bits of ham from the bottom of the pot.
- While the vegetables are sautéing, add one of the three cans of beans to a blender with the liquid from the can, and purée until smooth. Drain the remaining two cans of beans.
- Add all three cans of beans (one puréed and two drained) to the soup pot with the vegetables. Add ¼ tsp dried thyme and ¼ tsp pepper, and stir to combine.
- Stir in 2 cups chicken broth. Turn the heat up to medium-high and allow the soup to come to a boil.
- Once it reaches a boil, reduce the heat to medium and allow the soup to continue boiling for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. As the soup boils, it will reduce and thicken. If it becomes too thick, add more chicken broth or water to reach your desired consistency.
- After 15 minutes, stir the cooked ham back into the soup. Taste and adjust the salt or pepper as needed. Serve hot.
Notes
*Thicker slices work best for this soup — ham steaks, leftover holiday ham, or honey-glazed ham are all good options. Make sure you’re using fully cooked ham. A raw ham hock or uncooked ham bone requires a different cooking method.
**Canned cannellini beans are ideal here because they’re large, soft, creamy, and already cooked. Other white beans, like canned Great Northern or navy beans, work too. This recipe uses three 15.5 oz. cans: one puréed with its liquid and two drained and kept whole.
***Better Than Bouillon is an economical and convenient option for making broth. Saltiness varies by brand, so hold off on adding extra salt until the soup is finished. Add more broth or water if you prefer a thinner soup.
Seasonings: Thyme and black pepper are intentionally simple choices that complement the savory ham without needing a long simmer to develop. Feel free to adjust to your taste, but skip anything that benefits from longer cooking time, like bay leaves — this soup only simmers for 15 minutes.
Can I use dry beans? This recipe was developed specifically for canned beans. Dried beans take much longer to cook and require different amounts of liquid and seasoning. If you’d like to use dried beans, here are two options:
- Cook the dried beans first: Soak the beans overnight, discard the soaking water, then boil vigorously in fresh water for at least 10–15 minutes and continue cooking until soft. You’ll need about 4½ cups of cooked beans to replace the three cans. Purée 1½ cups with about ½ cup of water, then add the remaining 3 cups whole. From there, follow the recipe as written, adjusting the broth as needed.
- Start with dried beans: Follow a navy bean soup recipe instead, which uses soaked dried navy beans, a ham hock, and simmers on the stovetop for about 2 hours. For a no-presoak option, a slow cooker white bean soup works well with browned, fully cooked ham stirred in at the end.
Nutrition (per 1.5-cup serving)
| Nutrient | Amount |
|---|---|
| Calories | 385 kcal |
| Carbohydrates | 39 g |
| Protein | 34 g |
| Fat | 13 g |
| Sodium | 2226 mg |
| Fiber | 12 g |
Step-by-Step Photos
Start by gathering all of your ingredients. Use any fully cooked ham, but thicker slices work better than thin sandwich slices — a ham steak, honey-cured boneless ham, or leftover holiday ham all work well. You’ll need 1 lb. of cooked ham total.
Prep the vegetables: dice 1 yellow onion, peel and slice 3 carrots, slice 3 ribs of celery, and mince 2 cloves of garlic. With everything prepped and ready to go, this soup comes together quickly and delivers a deeply satisfying bowl of comfort food that punches well above its price point.
