Ham Great Northern Bean Soup (Printable)

A comforting dish featuring tender Great Northern beans and savory ham slow-cooked for deep flavor.

# What You’ll Need:

→ Beans & Legumes

01 - 1 pound dried Great Northern beans, rinsed and sorted

→ Meats

02 - 1 meaty ham bone or 2 cups diced cooked ham

→ Vegetables

03 - 1 large onion, finely chopped
04 - 2 carrots, peeled and diced
05 - 2 celery stalks, diced
06 - 3 cloves garlic, minced

→ Liquids

07 - 8 cups low-sodium chicken broth
08 - 2 cups water

→ Herbs & Spices

09 - 2 bay leaves
10 - 1 teaspoon dried thyme
11 - 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
12 - Salt to taste

# How-To:

01 - Rinse and sort dried beans to remove debris. Soaking overnight is optional but will reduce cooking time and soften beans further.
02 - In a 6-quart slow cooker, combine beans, ham bone or diced ham, onion, carrots, celery, and garlic.
03 - Pour chicken broth and water into slow cooker. Add bay leaves, thyme, and black pepper.
04 - Stir gently to combine. Cover and cook on low setting for 8 hours until beans are tender and flavors have melded.
05 - Remove ham bone if using. Shred any meat from the bone and return it to the soup. Discard the bone and bay leaves.
06 - Taste soup and adjust seasoning with salt as needed, keeping in mind that ham contributes natural saltiness.
07 - Ladle soup into bowls and serve hot. Garnish with fresh parsley if desired.

# Expert Advice:

01 -
  • The slow cooker does virtually all the work, leaving you free for the rest of your day.
  • Beans become impossibly tender while soaking up every bit of ham's savory richness.
  • One pot means cleanup is a breeze, which feels like a small miracle on busy evenings.
  • It freezes beautifully, so you're essentially making future meals without extra effort.
02 -
  • Don't oversalt at the beginning—ham is already salty, and slow cooking concentrates flavors, so what tastes right at hour two will be overly salty at hour eight.
  • If your ham bone is particularly thick or meaty, it may need an extra hour; very tender beans are the goal, not firm beans that require chewing.
03 -
  • Use a meaty ham bone from a holiday ham or ask your butcher for one—it costs almost nothing and releases flavor that diced ham simply can't match.
  • Taste the soup at hour seven instead of hour eight; beans cook at different rates depending on how old they are, and you want tender without turning to mush.
Return