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.
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:
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Place all ingredients in a large slow cooker (I use a 7-quart), keeping potatoes whole (see note for variation).
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Cook on low heat for 8 to 10 hours or high heat for 4 to 6 hours until beans are tender.
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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:
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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.
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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).
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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).