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Smoky White Bean & Ham Soup

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By Jenn Segal
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This Southern-style smoky white bean and ham soup adapted from chef Hugh Acheson is hearty and comforting.

Two bowls of smoky white bean and ham soup.

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

smoky white bean and ham soup ingredients

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.

soaking white beans

Bring to a boil, then remove from the heat and let sit for one hour.

boiling white beans

Drain the beans.

soaked white 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.

white beans, ham hocks, onion, and broth in pot

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).

bringing soup to a boil

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.

white bean soup after simmering for one hour

Add the minced onion, carrots, celery, tomatoes, garlic, thyme, and 2 teaspoons of salt to the pot.

adding the vegetables to the soup

Increase the heat to medium and cook, uncovered, for 15 minutes.

soup simmering in pot

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.

chopped ham on cutting board

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.)

a few cups of the soup in a food processor

Purée until smooth.

blended soup in food processor

Stir the mixture back into the soup.

thickened white bean soup

Add the meat and kale to the soup.

adding greens and ham to soup

Simmer over medium-low heat for 5 minutes more.

finished white bean and ham soup in pot

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.

Two bowls of smoky white bean and ham soup.

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Smoky White Bean and Ham Soup

Metric Cup Measures
Adapted from How to Cook: Building Blocks and 100 Simple Recipes for a Lifetime of Meals by Hugh Acheson

This Southern-style smoky white bean and ham soup adapted from chef Hugh Acheson is hearty and comforting.

Servings: 8 servings
Cook Time: 1 Hour 30 Minutes
Total Time: 2 Hours, plus plus 1 hour to soak the beans

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

  1. 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.
  2. 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).
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.)
  6. When you're ready to eat, garnish each bowl with a drizzle with olive oil (if using) and a heap of grated cheese.
  7. 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

Powered by Edamam

  • 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
Nutritional Data Disclaimer

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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Comments

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  • I have a leftover ham bone from our Easter dinner. Can I use that instead of the ham hocks?
    And, most of the ham is actually eaten. Can I add some sausage? And use canned beans?
    thanks
    Nidhi

    • Yes, yes, and yes. 🙂
      The ham bone will work, you can add some sausage, and canned beans are fine. Just add the beans at the end so they can heat through. Hope you enjoy!

  • I grew up on white beans in the South so this was comfort food. I now live in a large urban area which surprisingly doesn’t have things like smoked ham hocks in the stores and stand-alone butchers don’t really exist anymore. I substituted a smoked turkey leg which is about the right size for this recipe and it worked beautifully.

  • I would give this ten stars if I could. Have made this about 4 times and my family is now craving it. I made the mistake of giving some away to my cousins and now they keep asking for it! The only problem I have is finding meaty smoked ham hocks…it’s become my new mission! Thank you again Jenn for a wonderful meal!

  • I found this recipe this morning and because our roads are snow-packed I couldn’t go to the grocery store so I made a couple minor substitutions but this soup was excellent! The Parmesan added richness and we will definitely make this soup many more times. It was perfect for a cold winter day.

  • Made this recipe exactly as you did the first time and it was great as usual. I have made it 3 or 4 times since then using different greens and smoked turkey wings with or without the hocks. Only other change is I like my hocks a little more cooked and was having trouble getting them there before the beans were cooked. So last time I cooked the hocks in a small pot for 30 mins while the beans were soaking. Replaced some of the water with the broth from the hocks and it came out perfect for me. Love your site! Always the best recipes!

  • I haven’t made this recipe yet, but earlier this winter I tried making baked beans for the first time using dried white beans and the same technique of a boil and a one hour sit. I followed the recipe for the baked beans and after cooking many hours longer than the recipe called for the beans were still semi hard and I threw it all out, which makes me cautious about wanting to use dried white beans again.

    Any thoughts?

    • Hi Maxine, what I’ve learned is that when beans are really old, they are harder to soften. If you try the soup, make sure to pay close attention to the beans you buy; I’d check the date to make sure they are on the newer side. Hope that helps!

  • Could canned beans be substituted and if so, how and when to include? Thanks!

    • Sure, Jennifer, canned beans will work here. Because they just need to be warmed through, I’d add them right before you pull out the ham hocks. Please LMK how it comes out!

      • I have some leftover ham steak and steak and some virgins country ham pieces in the freezer. I would like to use these instead of a ham knuckle or hock. How much meat would I need for this substitution?
        Thanks Barbara

        • Hi Barbara, I’d recommend at least 1.5 cups, but you can use more if you’d like. Hope you enjoy!

  • I made this for the first time and it was excellent for the cold winter weather we are having! My husband declared it a winner and said we need to make it every week. High praise indeed!

  • Great winter time soup. The smoky flavor is wonderful. Delish!

    • — Vicki Mazurkevich
    • Reply

  • I adore this soup! It is rich in flavor and the chopped kale is a wonderful touch.
    Thank you, Jenn, for the gift of your shared knowledge and step by step recipes.
    You’ve given me such confidence in the kitchen!

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