Ham and Navy Bean Soup {Slow Cooker or Electric Pressure Cooker}

This ham and navy bean soup is easily made in a slow cooker or electric pressure cooker (i.e. Instant Pot) with leftover ham. It’s the perfect soup to warm you up on a cool winter day.

Hello my friends!

It’s good to be back after almost two weeks. It was a needed break, but I always love to be back on a schedule. Routines and me get along great. Disrupt them and I feel a little like my brain is a balloon floating in the clouds for a while. Then the balloon pops and I suddenly am thrown back into real life and have to pick up all the pieces again. It’s kind of a crazy process. Especially when my brain still wants to be up floating in the clouds.

We did quite a bit of traveling the last couple of weeks. A trip to daho before Christmas for a few days and then Arizona right after Christmas. We all ended up sick at some point during the Arizona trip which made it more like a roller coaster ride than a nice peaceful balloon float. But the wonderful reunion spent reconnecting with family was definitely the high point. And that made everything else worth it. I wouldn’t say that if I didn’t have just about the best family anyone could ask for. I know I am super lucky.

It was so fun to reconnect with them, some of whom I haven’t seen for years. There was lots of laughing and chatting and plenty of deep reflection for me on the long drive. It was a trip to be remembered. On both ends of the scale. The worst of the worst with the sickies keeping us up all night and the best of the best with making family memories.

Life really is like that though, isn’t it? With all of its highs and lows.

It’s good though. Really good.

And today is good because I’m excited to share this delicious ham and navy bean soup with you. We’ve been making it for years and it’s very simple and basic. But super tasty.

Ham and navy bean soup

We like to make this soup from leftover bone-in ham (perfect if you happen to have Christmas ham leftovers in the freezer somewhere). Often we throw the whole ham bone in with the scraps around the bone. You obviously discard the bone before eating the soup, but the bone gives the broth a really good flavor. We’ve also made it without the bone and it’s still super delicious with just the leftover ham.

We usually make this soup in a 7-quart slow cooker, but I’ve also made it in an electric pressure cooker. The only issue with the electric pressure cooker method is that the full recipe makes too much to fit in a standard 6 quart electric pressure cooker (which is what I have). I will either cut the recipe down by half or just use less water when I cook it and then add water later after it is done and reheat it. A bit goofy, but it works.

One of the secret ingredients to this soup (and many other soups that we like to make) is the pumpkin or other winter squash puree. Adding pureed winter squash is a great way to add color, flavor and nutrition to a soup. It gives it kind of a homey, warm, comfort-food flavor that is so good. We usually make our own squash purees from winter squash that we grow in our garden, but you can also use canned pumpkin puree from the store.

This soup makes great leftovers and it’s a great one to freeze and reheat too. I hope you enjoy. It’s one of our very favorites.

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Ham and Navy Bean Soup

This ham and navy bean soup is easily made in a slow cooker or electric pressure cooker (i.e. Instant Pot) with leftover ham. It’s the perfect soup to warm you up on a cool winter day.

Course Main Course, Soup

Cuisine American

Keyword Ham and Navy Bean Soup

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 4 hours

Total Time 4 hours 10 minutes

Servings 8 Servings

Author Heather @ thecookstreat.com

Ingredients

• 2 cups dried navy beans sorted and rinsed
• 1 meaty ham bone or 1 to 2 pounds leftover bone-in ham
• 2 large russet potatoes washed and peeled, see note
• 2 teaspoons salt
• ½ teaspoon black pepper
• 1 cup diced yellow onion about 1 medium onion
• 1 cup chopped celery about 2 medium stalks
• 1 clove garlic minced
• 2 cups pumpkin puree see note
• 12 cups water

Instructions

Slow Cooker Instructions:

1. Place all ingredients in a large slow cooker (I use a 7-quart), keeping potatoes whole (see note for variation). 

2. Cook on low heat for 8 to 10 hours or high heat for 4 to 6 hours until beans are tender. 

3. Just before serving, remove ham bone and whole potatoes. Chop meat and mash potatoes before returning to soup. Taste and add additional salt and pepper to taste, if needed.

Electric Pressure Cooker Instructions:

1. Place all ingredients in electric pressure cooker except water. Measure out water and add just until fill line (being careful not to overfill cooker). In my 6-quart electric pressure cooker I can only use about 7 to 8 cups of water. If all of the water doesn’t fit, reserve the remaining water for later. 

2. Cook on high pressure for 80 minutes. Let pressure release naturally for at least 10 minutes before doing a quick release (or you can let it release naturally the entire time). 

3. Just before serving, remove ham bone and whole potatoes. Chop meat and mash potatoes before returning to soup. Add any reserved water that didn’t fit in cooker initially. Reheat soup if needed to warm. Taste and add additional salt and pepper to taste, if needed.

Recipe Notes

1. As a variation, we have also made this soup using diced potatoes rather than keeping them whole and mashing them. The soup is a little runnier that way, as mashing helps thicken the soup. But both ways are good.

2. You can use any type of homemade winter squash puree (butternut, pumpkin, hubbard, etc). Or canned pumpkin puree also works in this recipe (be sure it’s not pumpkin pie filling).

Recipe Source: Heather @ The Cook’s Treat

All images and text ©The Cook’s Treat

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