You don’t often hear a dish as simple as soup get called “crazy good” — but that’s the kind of praise that got thrown around when everyone in the TipHero kitchen tried this slow cooker ham and bean soup.

Whether you need a heartwarming dinner for a crowd, or make-ahead lunches for the whole week, it doesn’t get any simpler than crock-pot soup. With 10 minutes of prep time in the morning, all you have to do is throw all of the ingredients into the slow cooker and let the ham and beans cook down to a chunky, smoky broth.

Bean soup is so hearty and comforting, which you already know if you’ve made our vegetarian Tuscan white bean and kale soup.This time around, we wanted to create an easy bean soup that you could make in the slow cooker — and we wanted to add ham.

This crock-pot soup is a great way to use up leftover holiday ham. You can even toss the whole ham hock or ham bone into the slow cooker to add even more meaty flavor.

We always stock our pantry with dried beans because they’re so economical and healthy. But if you’re like us, you forget to soak your beans overnight and don’t realize until it’s too late — so you end up reaching for the can anyways. Our ham and bean soup recipe uses a dry bean soup mix, and there’s absolutely no soaking necessary.

With a bean blend, you get more than 10 beautiful varieties of beans in one soup without having to buy more than one package. Ours was a mix of navy, black, red, pinto, garbanzo, great northern, kidney, and lima beans, black-eyed, yellow split, and green split peas, and brown and red lentils. The rainbow of colors is as much a feast for the eyes as it is for the stomach.

Chef’s Tips

• Bundling the fresh herbs together with butcher twine makes it easier to remove the stems once the soup has finished cooking.
• If you don’t have fresh herbs, you can substitute ½ teaspoon dried rosemary and 1 tablespoon dried thyme. (The general rule of thumb when substituting dried herbs for fresh is to use ⅓ of the amount called for, since dried herbs have a more concentrated flavor.)

Slow Cooker Ham and Bean Soup

Serves 8
Prep Time: 10 Minutes
Total Time: 6 Hours 10 Minutes

Ingredients

• 1 (24 oz) package bean blend (13 – 16 varieties of dry beans), sorted and rinsed
• 2 medium celery stalks, medium dice
• 1 medium onion, medium dice
• 3 medium carrots, medium dice
• 1 pound smoked ham, diced (ham hock/ ham bone can also be used)
• ¼ teaspoon chili flakes
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 small sprigs fresh rosemary
• 5 – 6 sprigs fresh thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 quarts chicken broth
• 1 (15.5 oz) can diced tomatoes with juice
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Looking for more crock-pot soup recipes? Here are some of our faves:

• Slow Cooker Beef Barley Soup
• Crock-pot French Onion Soup
• Crock-pot Zuppa Toscana
• Creamy Chicken and Wild Rice Soup
• Slow Cooker Beef Stew
• Slow Cooker Chicken Parmesan Soup