Smoky White Bean & Ham Soup
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This Southern-style smoky white bean and ham soup adapted from chef Hugh Acheson is hearty and comforting.
This rich and smoky white bean and ham soup is modestly adapted from Georgia chef Hugh Acheson’s cookbook, How to Cook: Building Blocks and 100 Simple Recipes for a Lifetime of Meals. The book is intended for kitchen novices—Acheson wrote it with his teenage daughters, Beatrice and Clementine, in mind—but I think it’s a wonderful resource for seasoned cooks, too. This recipe, for example, begins with a lesson on how to cook dried beans, a skill every cook should have, and then shows how to transform them into a flavorful, hearty soup by adding smoked ham hocks, chicken stock, vegetables, and herbs.
I made a few tweaks to the recipe, like adding more ham and puréeing a portion of the soup to thicken it up a bit. Feel free to skip the puréeing step if you prefer a brothier soup.
Table of Contents
What You’ll Need to Make Smoky White Bean & Ham Soup
Smoked ham hocks, or pork knuckles, come from the ankle region of the pig’s leg. In Southern cooking, hocks are often used to add a rich, meaty, and smoky flavor to soups, stews, and greens. They are available in most supermarkets and are very inexpensive. If for some reason you can’t find them, pork shank can be substituted.
Step-by-Step Instructions
Step 1: Quick-Soak the Beans
Place the beans in a large pot and cover with 2 to 3 inches of water.
Bring to a boil, then remove from the heat and let sit for one hour.
Drain the beans.
Step 2: Make the White Bean & Ham Soup
Place the drained beans into a 5.5-quart Dutch oven or large pot. Add the water, chicken stock, bay leaves, quartered onion, and ham hocks.
Bring to a boil over high heat, then cover and simmer over low heat until the beans are just tender, about 1 hour (depending on the size of the beans, it could take a bit longer).
Once the beans are tender, pull out the bay leaves, onion remnants, and ham hocks. Discard the bay leaves and onions, but set the ham hocks aside to cool.
Add the minced onion, carrots, celery, tomatoes, garlic, thyme, and 2 teaspoons of salt to the pot.
Increase the heat to medium and cook, uncovered, for 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, while the soup is cooking, and when the ham hocks are cool enough to handle, pull the meat from the hocks, discard any bone, fat, and tough sinew, and chop the meat finely.
Use a ladle to transfer about 2 cups of the beans and vegetables, along with a bit of broth, to a blender or food processor. (If using a blender, be sure to remove the center knob on the lid and cover with a dishtowel to avoid splatters.)
Purée until smooth.
Stir the mixture back into the soup.
Add the meat and kale to the soup.
Simmer over medium-low heat for 5 minutes more.
Taste and adjust the seasoning with more salt, if necessary. At this point, you can serve the soup or refrigerate it for up to 3 days. When you’re ready to eat, garnish each bowl with a drizzle with olive oil (if using) and a heap of grated cheese.
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Smoky White Bean and Ham Soup
This Southern-style smoky white bean and ham soup adapted from chef Hugh Acheson is hearty and comforting.
Ingredients
- 1 pound dried white navy beans or Great Northern beans, rinsed and checked for stones
- 6 cups water
- 4 cups chicken stock
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 yellow onion, peeled and quartered, plus ½ cup minced (you'll need 2 onions)
- 2 pounds smoked ham hocks
- 2 carrots, diced
- 2 celery stalks, diced
- 1 (14 oz) can chopped or diced tomatoes
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme leaves
- Salt
- 1½ cups chopped kale or other dark leafy greens
- Extra-virgin olive oil, for serving (optional)
- Finely grated pecorino Romano or Parmigiano Reggiano, for serving
Instructions
- Quick-soak the beans: Place the beans in a medium pot and cover with 2 to 3 inches of water. Bring to a boil over high heat and cook for 1 minute. Remove the pot from the heat and let sit for 1 hour. Drain in a colander.
- Place the drained beans into a 5.5-quart Dutch oven or large pot. Add the water, chicken stock, bay leaves, quartered onion, and ham hocks. Bring to a boil over high heat, then cover and simmer over low heat until the beans are just tender, about 1 hour (depending on the size of the beans, it could take a bit longer).
- Once the beans are tender, pull out the bay leaves, onion remnants, and ham hocks. Discard the bay leaves and onions, but set the ham hocks aside to cool.
- Add the minced onion, carrots, celery, tomatoes, garlic, thyme, and 2 teaspoons of salt to the pot. Increase the heat to medium and cook, uncovered, for 15 minutes. While the soup is cooking, and when the ham hocks are cool enough to handle, pull the meat from the hocks, discard any bone, fat, and tough sinew, and chop the meat finely.
- Use a ladle to transfer about 2 cups of the beans and vegetables, along with a bit of broth, to a blender or food processor. (If using a blender, be sure to remove the center knob on the lid and cover with a dishtowel to avoid splatters.) Purée until smooth, and then stir the mixture back into the soup. Add the meat and kale to the soup and simmer over medium-low heat for 5 minutes more. Taste and adjust the seasoning with more salt, if necessary (I usually add about 1 teaspoon more; beans require a lot of salt to bring out their flavor). At this point, you can serve the soup or refrigerate it for up to 3 days. (It will thicken up in the fridge; thin it with a bit of water, if necessary.)
- When you're ready to eat, garnish each bowl with a drizzle with olive oil (if using) and a heap of grated cheese.
- Freezer-Friendly Instructions: The soup can be frozen for up to 3 months. Defrost the soup in the refrigerator for 12 hours and then reheat it on the stovetop over medium heat until hot. through.
Pair with
Nutrition Information
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- Per serving (Nutritional data is based on 2 tsp salt and does not include oil and cheese - 8 servings)
- Calories: 468
- Fat: 14g
- Saturated fat: 4g
- Carbohydrates: 46g
- Sugar: 7g
- Fiber: 11g
- Protein: 41g
- Sodium: 1326mg
- Cholesterol: 73mg
This website is written and produced for informational purposes only. I am not a certified nutritionist and the nutritional data on this site has not been evaluated or approved by a nutritionist or the Food and Drug Administration. Nutritional information is offered as a courtesy and should not be construed as a guarantee. The data is calculated through an online nutritional calculator, Edamam.com. Although I do my best to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures should be considered estimates only. Varying factors such as product types or brands purchased, natural fluctuations in fresh produce, and the way ingredients are processed change the effective nutritional information in any given recipe. Furthermore, different online calculators provide different results depending on their own nutrition fact sources and algorithms. To obtain the most accurate nutritional information in a given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe, using your preferred nutrition calculator.
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Brought me back to mamas bean soup ! Delicious and hearty! Thank you, this is going in my recipe box❤️
This is such a delicious, satisfying soup. I’ve made it twice in the last 2 weeks. The first time I had to substitute for a couple of ingredients I didn’t have on hand (celery for carrots, green lentils for red) and it was as good as the next time I made it with the listed ingredients. Now that I’ve made it a couple of times, I find it’s easier to use a stick blender to puree some of the soup in the pot, rather than removing 2 cups to blend separately.
This soup is really yummy. I have only made it without ham and it tastes delicious. Used an immersion blender to purée and added double the amount of kale.
I love the smokiness of this soup; it is perfect for a cold winter night. I made the mistake of going to 3 different stores looking for smoked ham hocks when they ended up in stock at my local Giant. I simmered my soup with a parmesan rind to add more to the flavor. Just delicious! Adding it to my “Make Again” list.
This is by far my favorite bean soup recipe. So flavorful and satisfying -it now has a permanent spot in my soup rotation! I also love that this recipe uses dry beans. I hate to guess at converting a recipe that requires canned beans. I served it with crusty bread to my adult kids home for the holidays and they were more impressed with this simple and lovely soup than a fancy dinner!
Being born and raised in New Orleans, beans are a staple in my family. This combination of ham, white beans, and smoky flavor is really really satisfying. After eating this you don’t even need dessert although adding your biscuit recipe makes this meal more than special!
This smoky white bean soup is so good. Tasty and hearty. I always have a container in my freezer for a warming lunch with crusty rolls.
This was delicious and is a much improved version of my mom’s (sorry mom 😬) beans and ham soup. I added more kale to ours and it was a hit. The ham hocks add the perfect amount of ham to the soup.
Tried this delicious bean soup recipe because I enjoy a good tasty bean soup. It was flavorful robust filled with different textures with I feel makes a great soup. The kale was a interesting addition which proved to be a hit.
My favorite bean soup recipe.
I made this to bring a friend who is unwell. His family absolutely loved it and said it was the most comforting soup. My family loves it, too. Such a keeper.
Delicious! I’ve made this several times and have used both smoked ham hocks and just smoked ham bone from a spiral ham. Pureeing a portion of the soup gives it a nice texture. I needed a nice amount of salt at the end to bring all the flavors together. Thanks for a great recipe!
Soup was good. glad I signed up for this newletter
Loved this recipe. It is perfect for a cold winter day. Paired it with cornbread muffins.
I have been looking for the perfect ham and bean soup and have found it. So flavorful and the vegetables are not cooked so long that they become mushy. I am getting rid of all the other ham and bean soup recipes I have tried and found to be wanting. Thank you!
Made this a few weeks ago, and holy unctuous-ness, Batman! This was so flavorful, filling, and comforting! I followed your instructions to use dried beans and could definitely taste the difference. My soup wasn’t as red as in the pics, and I love my stuff spicy so added a lot of red pepper flakes and smoked paprika. It was SO yummy! Definitely going in my rotation. Can’t wait to try your other recipes 😋.
Absolutely delicious! I made this using Rancho Gordo’s yellow eye beans. I didn’t presoak the beans because their dried beans are so fresh that presoaking isn’t really necessary. I also tossed in a parsnip that I had and didn’t use the tomatoes. (Husband is allergic to tomato’s). After cooking I finished the soup with some fresh chopped parsley! Yum!
Hello! Loved the flavor of the soup! I am having a bit of a challenge with the texture of the smoked ham hock after heating it in the soup. The pieces aren’t tender.
What to do?
Hi Pam, the ham may not actually be all that tender; it’s mostly just included to add flavor to the broth. Hope that clarifies!
I made this with the ham and bone leftover from Christmas. The soup turned out delicious. I cut the recipe in half since there is only two of us. My husband was not into me making this soup because he didn’t think he would like it. Well he tried it and he LOVES it. Thank you so much for your delicious recipes.
Delicious. Used a ham bone leftover from Christmas dinner instead of ham hocks. Also had small piece of pancetta which I cubed and fried before adding with the ham. Otherwise followed exactly as written. Your recipes never disappoint.
Hi Jen! LOVE YOUR FOOD! I’m looking for a recipe to help me use the ham bone from spiral smoked ham and extra meat. Can this be used in this soup recipe? Thanks for being such a consistent source of great food. Ji
Hi Jill, So glad you like the recipes! I think this recipe would be an excellent way to use your ham bone.
I had cans of navy beans rolling in my pantry and I was looking for a simple recipe which doesn’t make do more grocery runs for more stuff. This is a fam pleaser this cold season. Thanks
Jenn this was exactly what i expected from you- completely delicious! I couldn’t find ham hocks or smoked turkey so i used a petite Leddy’s bone- in smoked pork shoulder and it came out perfect!
Absolutely delicious! I made this last week for my husband and ended up sharing it with my parents and in-laws and it was universally loved. Will definitely add to the dinner rotation!
Absolutely DeLiCiOuS!!! My hubby makes a wonderful soup, but this was amazing and he was really quiet while eating. I asked if he liked it. After a long pass, he said he was trying to decide if it was better than his. LOL 😂 I believe it is, but didn’t tell him that! 😉
Extremely delicious. I don’t usually do reviews, but this was so good I had too! My wife doesn’t usually do seconds but she had to for this one!
As usual over the top. You are one of the chefs I know I can always go to for the perfect recipe. I know I can make anything for the first time, even for company and it will be fabulous. Sooooo…..thank you for your generosity of spirit.
I doubled this, put in containers, froze and am sharing with my kids to take home at Thanksgiving along with other frozen goodies.
Happy Holiday Season.
I can see this recipe is going to be a winner, so I’m going to pre-review it. The only thing I’ll change is instead of smoked pork, I’m going to use a smoked turkey leg which adds amazing flavor and tender fall apart meat in a soup. I use it to make my Cajun style red beans and rice. Just amazing. If you haven’t done so, try it !
Hi Jenn!
I couldn’t find smoked ham hocks at the grocery, so I bought a regular ham hock instead. (I see now that I could have looked for a smoked turkey leg instead — will keep that in mind for the future.)
What would you recommend adding to give the soup more flavor and/or “smoke” with the regular ham hock? Thanks for any tips!
Hi S, I’d add a pinch of smoked paprika to add that hint of smoky flavor. Hope you enjoy!
Thanks for the tip! I made this last night and it was fabulous. For anyone who’s interested, I ended up using about 1.5 tsp of smoked paprika. I also used 10 c of chicken stock (no water) because I had fresh stock from a rotisserie chicken and veggies on hand. One of the best soups I’ve made!
Hi Jenn☺️,
I am a big fan of everything you cook and love your cookbook!❤️ I was wondering if you could leave the kale out, would it still be OK?
Have a blessed day…
Hugs,
Kimberly🙆🏼
Sure, Kimberly – it’s perfectly fine to leave it out.
I used bok choy since I don’t care for kale…it worked out perfectly.
Hi,
I want to make this recipe, but I have been unable to find ham hocks at any grocery store near my house “inside the beltway in NOVA”. I was able to buy Smithfield “Ham Hocks or Butts Sliced”, but they aren’t smoked. The package says this is a salt cured product uses for seasoning green beans, pintos, etc. Do you think this will work?
Thanks
Marie K.
Hi Marie, I think you could get away with using what you’ve purchased but because I’m not sure how salty it is, I’d probably just chop it up and add it at the end of the cooking time. Hope that helps and please LMK how it turns out!
We made a this with a smoked turkey leg that we had in our fridge instead of the smoked ham and it was amazing. One of our favorites now!
I am having trouble finding smoked ham hocks. There are plenty of country ham hocks but country ham is so salty. I live in the South, in North Carolina. Are smoked ham hocks more common in other parts of the country? I can’t find many smoked ham hocks online and those aren’t cheap. Help!
Hi Jane, If you’re having a hard time finding smoked ham hocks, no worries. I’d go with a smoked turkey leg instead – it will still be delicious!
I just made this with country ham hocks not knowing the difference. It is extremely salty! Almost inedible. Jenn any advice?
Oh no! I’d recommend adding more broth or water. You could also add a can of low-sodium beans. Hope that helps!
Hi Jane! I live in South Carolina and had trouble finding them at my usual grocery stores as well, but finally had success at the Walmart Supercenter. I’m looking forward to making this soup in the next day or two. Hope this helps!
I made this exactly as presented. I am not a bean guy so have never prepped beans or ham hocks. It was fabulous. Hocks didn’t come smoked, so I added “smoke” using smoked truffle salt.
I made a half order of this soup exactly as described and it was delicious! (There are only two of us.)Thank you so much!
Hi, Jean,
I live at 7000 feet, Park City, UT. I love your recipes and this one sounds great for the snowy winter that has already here begun. However, cooking beans at this altitude from scratch is a long procedure with not very good results. How about if I use canned beans instead? Would that work?
Thanks.
Glad you like the recipes! Yes, I think that canned beans will work here. Please LMK how it turns out!
It’s so good! My whole family devoured this, including my 4 and 1 year olds. The flavors really meld overnight and it tastes even better the next day. Love having a new hearty and affordable soup to add to the rotation.
This soup is really delicious. I made it over 2 days, stopping after cooking the beans and ham hocks, so that I could chill the beans and broth and later skim the fat. Adding greens in a nice touch. Make sure to use meaty hocks. It freezes well, so make a lot.
I just made this soup, it is delicious! I did make it a little different, I sauteed all the vegetables and then added them to the beans. I also cooked the ham hocks in the crock pot and added all the stock to the beans.
Made this today and it was delicious — so were the Southern Style Buttermilk Biscuits! I am counting points on Weight Watchers and was unable to calculate the points for the soup because the calories are missing. Do you have that information?
I typically think I’m a pretty good soup maker, but failed at this one. the only way I’ve ever been able to have success with pork shanks is to slow cook them in a crock pot for 10 hours or more. Simmering them for 1 hour didn’t yield anything that i could use. There was no way to remove the useable meat from the knuckle or get enough sinew off to use them. Also, because i didn’t have any carrots and bought fire roasted tomatoes in error, i ended up sending the whole pot down the disposal. The soup sounded good and i bet it is, just didn’t work out for me this time around.
Hi Mary, sorry you found this disappointing! The ham hock doesn’t actually have a ton of meat on it and you do have to put some effort into getting the pieces off the bone; it’s mostly just included to help flavor the broth.
Made this today and I can’t stop tasting it. I’ll have the entire pot done by dinner. Again, a wonderfully tasty meal.
Great soup. I red the recipe last night and I served the soup today with baked bacon en parmeggiano cheese. My husband and I both loved it very much. Thank you.
Made this tonight, with variations, and it was delicious, according to my fairly finicky family 🙂
We all just got the email newsletter this morning, so it was subject to ingredients on hand: I chopped smoked ham on the bone (for the ham hocks), fresh spinach instead of kale, white kidney beans (canned), and veggie broth. I prefer veggie broth to canned or boxed chicken broth, which I consider rather vile. Since veggie broth has a lot of celery, I omitted celery, and used just one carrot. As a process change, I pulsed using an immersion blender to avoid the food processor step and extra cleanup. Do this prior to adding the ham and greens if you go this route.
I sautéd the onion as a first step…can’t recall if that was in the recipe… then just threw it all together. It really was delicious! Thanks, Jen, for working so hard on this site. Every recipe I’ve tried has been superb and very well explained!
We just had this for supper tonight, and it’s absolutely delicious.
I have a pot of this simmer on the stove right now and my kitchen smell delightful.
I saw this recipe this morning and happened to have all the ingredients on hand to make this for dinner. The only change was accidental, I chopped up Swiss Chard before I realized I’d grabbed that out of the fridge instead of the kale…oops!
Sampling this to adjust the last teaspoon of salt told me this is a definite keeper.
I did use a wild boar smoked hock because a friend shared some wild boar with me.
It is wonderful….even with chard😊
I followed the recipe and this tastes delicious! I found the ham hocks at Stop and Shop. I can’t wait to serve it to my family! Thanks Jenn!
Is there any way you could transform this recipe to an Instapot version? I am seriously thinking of purchasing one. I hear beans take no time to cook.
In the meantime, will try it on the stove top once I buy the beans.
Oh, anyway one can tell how fresh the beans are when buying them?
Much thanks.
Sunny Drohan
Hi Sunny, I don’t have enough experience with it to tell you confidently whether or not/how to convert this to an instant pot, so you may want to take a peek at these tips. It looks like they could be useful. And if you’re buying the beans out of a bulk bin, I’m not sure there’s a way to tell how fresh they are (though you could ask the store if there’s a system they use to indicate that). If buying packaged beans, you can look for the “Best By” date. Hope that helps!
Hi Jenn, any suggestions on what meat could I substitute for ham?
Thanks
Radiya
Hi Radiya, Smoked turkey legs would work well. I’d love to know how it turns out if you try it.
Can you make this in a slow cooker?
Sure, Cindylou – I think it should work.
ok to freeze?
Sure, I think you could get away with freezing it. Enjoy!
This looks delicious and am excited to make it. Would it be ok to use rinsed canned beans and shorten the cooking time? Or would the flavor be diminished with pre-cooked beans?
And just a suggestion: I can’t rate the recipe yet because I haven’t made it but I don’t want to leave zero stars which would look like I didn’t like the recipe. Maybe you could separate the questions from the reviews so when someone just has a question, they’re not asked to rate the recipe.
Hi DV, Canned beans will work, but it won’t really cut down on the cooking time because the ham hocks need to cook for at least 1 hour to get tender. You could probably do a different version with bacon, which doesn’t need to cook for that long, if you wanted to use canned beans. If you go that route, I’d add a few slices of bacon to simmer with the broth to add flavor, then take them out and discard before serving — and then I’d crisp up a few slices in a frying pan and crumble them over the soup before serving. (It’s fine to just skip the rating; it won’t show as zero stars or affect the overall rating of the recipe. I will try to find a way to make that more clear.) Hope that helps!
Hi, I like the idea to use bacon. When you suggest to add a few slices to simmer with the broth, do you put in raw/uncooked bacon that you will take out after?
Yes, you would put it in raw and then discard it after the soup is done simmering. Hope you enjoy!
Thank you
For those of us who don’t eat pork, is there any way to modify this recipe?
Hi Danielle, I think smoked turkey legs would work well. You could also just omit it, but you’ll likely need to add more seasoning.
How would the spices need to be adjusted to make this recipe vegetarian?
Hi Naz, you can leave out the ham hock, and to add a bit more flavor, you could add either a pinch of smoked paprika or put a Parmesan rind in the soup while it’s simmering. Hope that helps and please LMK how it turns out if you try it with either of those alternatives!
I made the vegetarian version and it was absolutely delicious!! My husband swears it tasted like ham. I added smoked paprika and put a Parmesan rind in the soup while simmering. I also used spinach for the greens.