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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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!