Our NAVY BEAN SOUP WITH HAM is exceptionally delicious!
This wholesome, hearty, homemade soup recipe never disappoints. Making it is such a joyous experience, we’re hoping you add it to your must-make winter soups list as soon as possible. Not only is it exceedingly delicious, but it’s also quite easy to make. Oh, and one final attribute worthy of mention are the heavenly aromas that emanate from this sensational soup as it cooks. Our NAVY BEAN SOUP WITH HAM is certainly one for the books.
If preparing soups during the cold fall and winter months is your thing, we have other recipes that’ll tickle your soup-loving fancy like our EASY HOMEMADE TOMATO SOUP, this tangy HOT AND SOUR SOUP, one of my personal faves, a rich, creamy MULLIGATAWNY, and the soup that’s also a meal, our seafood-filled fisherman’s stew, CIOPPINO.
Because soups are often best enjoyed with a favourite bread for dipping, I’ll list my top picks at the very bottom of the page.
Now grab your favourite soup pot, Dutch oven, crock pot, slow cooker, pressure cooker or kettle. Let’s make this lovely NAVY BEAN SOUP WITH HAM:
INGREDIENTS
This is one of those homemade white bean soup recipes that simply works. Hopefully, this photo of the ingredients is enough to inspire you to make it. You’ll need navy beans, a chunky, smoked ham hock, a mirepoix of carrots, onion, parsnips, celery and garlic plus a few aromatics… absolute perfection. For best results, pick up organic veggies whenever available; this soup always tastes better when made with them.
NAVY BEANS
Let’s continue now by delving deeper into some of the key takeaways of the various ingredients, starting with NAVY BEANS. Navy beans, also called haricot beans, are a powerhouse of micronutrients and antioxidants with some very impressive nutrition facts. Like kidney beans, cannellini beans, great northern beans, black beans, pinto beans and lentils, they’re an excellent source of plant-based protein and fibre. They are also a rich source of folate, iron, zinc, magnesium, and calcium. Health experts all agree that adding navy beans to your diet can help reduce LDL cholesterol. Beans can also improve heart health, reduce the risk of diabetes and help you to maintain a healthy weight. We love them.
Although I’d love to take credit for crafting this recipe, I can’t. This treasured family recipe comes straight from my mom’s old recipe box. No surprise then that a few of my siblings have a thing or two to say about it. One suggests rinsing and draining the beans a few times to reduce the chance of… flatulence! Good one!
WHY DO WE SOAK BEANS?
That said, soaking the beans before cooking them is a key step. Although you may be tempted to try a quick-soak method, we suggest not doing so with this bean recipe. Instead, try our method where we cover the beans with cold water the night before we intend to cook them. If you’d like to pressure cook the beans or make an instant pot navy bean soup, just tweak the recipe as needed.
Hopefully, the above photos properly shows why. Soaking the dry navy beans rehydrates them, plumping them up to twice the size. This helps shorten the total time needed to cook the soup but also cooks the beans tender, without turning them into mush. One final tip, again from another sibling: don’t add salt to this recipe until the soup has been fully cooked. This apparently helps keep those beans tender plus allows you to create a low-sodium recipe, if you’re watching your sodium intake.
SMOKED HAM HOCK
Let me apologize to all the vegetarians reading this. Technically you can make this soup recipe without the smoked ham hock, but we rather you didn’t. Instead, go HERE to peruse our SOUPS AND STEWS collection to find one of our many 100% vegetarian recipes. For the meat eaters in our midst, here’s the deal. The flavour of the smoked ham hock takes centre stage to create a ham soup with layers of flavour – wait until you taste it! Smoking a ham hock involves brining, drying, and smoking the meat to give it a distinctive smoky flavour. It pairs perfectly with the small white beans and other ingredients. It can be purchased already made, so including it in this recipe requires zero prep steps except at the very end. You’ll remove it from the stock pot and trim it down into small bite-size pieces. If you can’t find a ham hock, try this recipe using smoked chicken or a plump smoked turkey thigh or drumstick.
VEGETABLES
The MIREPOIX used in this recipe is one of my absolute favourites; onion, celery and garlic. Sautéing these flavourful veggies in melted butter is easy – just throw a soup pot over medium-high heat and you’ll be done in no time. We also think butter adds more flavour than olive oil. You’ll notice we’ve also included carrots and parsnip in this recipe, yet we didn’t finely dice them to include in the mirepoix. Instead, they get peeled and cooked whole while the soup simmers on low heat. They later are plucked from the pot, cut into bite-sized chunks and added back to the pot. This method heightens the flavours of carrot and parsnip with each bite while also adding a pleasing thickness to the soup and adds a subtle sweetness to the broth.
FLAVOUR ENHANCEMENTS
In addition to the gathering of fresh veggies and smoked ham we also add bay leaves, whole black peppercorns and fresh parsley. The bay leaves, sometimes referred to as laurel leaves, add a light, herbal flavour and pleasing aroma to dishes, similar to thyme and oregano. Remove and discard them from the soup before serving. Regarding the fresh parsley, you can use curly parsley or flat-leaf parsley, chopping it finely and sprinkling it into the soup along with the cooked ham and chunky carrots and parsnips. We suggest saving a bit of the chopped parsley to also use as a garnish before you go to serve. Feel free add other herbs into the pot like fresh dill or chopped chives.
HOW TO MAKE BEAN SOUP
Making this NAVY BEAN SOUP WITH HAM is quite easy. After sautéing the onion, celery and garlic, drain the navy beans then add them into the pot with the carrots, parsnips, ham hock and water instead of vegetable or chicken broth. Then, bring the pot to a boil. After it comes to a boil, reduce to simmer and leave the soup to cook slowly at that lower temperature until the beans soften and the soup is rich in flavour. As mentioned, the preparation of this soup will fill your home or cottage with appetizing aromas.
The final directions of this soup recipe is to remove the cooked ham hock, carrots and parsnips from the pot, cut them up and return them as bite-sized pieces. Please use tongs when removing these items as they’ll be slippery and very hot.
CHOPPING THE COOKED VEGGIES AND HAM
Once removed from the pot, leave them to cool for a few moments so you’ll be able to handle them. Cut the parsnips and carrots to your liking – we think bite-sized chunks work and look best.
Trimming and cutting up the ham hock is a bit more complicated. It’s also a bit messy (sorry). After removing and cooling the cooked joint of ham, begin by peeling away and discarding the fatty skin and the leftover ham bone.
Then, using a sharp knife, trim away and discard all of the fat that’s still clinging to the meat. You’ll also find tough bits or cartilage that can be cut away as well.
Similar to the veggies, cut the tender, cooked ham into smaller bite-sized bits then stir them into the pot.
Here’s one final comment about the finished soup worthy of mention. In the above photo you’ll notice that whole black peppercorn nestled in the spoonful of rich, hearty, delicious soup. Although you may be tempted to remove them from the soup, I suggest leaving them in. Biting into these softened little nuggets of black pepper is like a pop of additional, memorable flavour.
We know you’re going to love everything about this navy bean soup recipe, including the fact that it keeps well. Store leftovers in the refrigerator in an airtight container. Don’t worry about freezing portions either. I always have little containers in the freezer that can be defrosted and reheated in short order.
PIN IT!
This winter soup idea is so tasty, we suggest you PIN the recipe to a favourite soup or weeknight meal board on PINTEREST or BOOKMARK this tab for easy access. SHARE it with friends so they can make them too. We’d also appreciate seeing pics of all the delicious dishes you’re making these days. Use #weekendatthecottage when you post those pics on Facebook and Instagram. Thanks!
This NAVY BEAN SOUP WITH HAM is comfort food at its best!
Until Cottage Season
