Southern Crockpot Soup Beans with Ham (Easy & Delicious!)

This Southern Crockpot Soup Beans with Ham is slow-cooked comfort food at its finest.
It's a hearty soup made with dried beans, a leftover ham bone, and hours of low, gentle cooking that builds incredible depth of flavor.

Why You'll Love It

This easy crockpot soup beans recipe is one of those delicious soup recipes that feels deeply nostalgic and wildly practical at the same time. If you grew up with a pot of beans simmering all day, you already get it. And if you didn't, this is the perfect way to start. Soup beans, especially in places like West Virginia and across the South, aren't about shortcuts. They're about slow cooking, simple ingredients, and letting time do the heavy lifting.

Using a leftover holiday ham bone or ham shank is a great way to create your own flavorful broth without extra steps. As the slow cooker does its thing, the meat slowly breaks down, infusing the beans with much flavor and richness you just can't rush. This slow cooker bean soup recipe works beautifully with lima beans, but it's also flexible. If you're from Appalachia, you're probably used to Slow Cooker Pinto Beans. But you could also use Navy beans, great northern beans, cannellini beans, white kidney beans, or even a mix of different beans all work depending on personal preference and what you grab at the grocery store.

What makes this a great recipe is how forgiving it is. You don't need a rolling boil, a pressure cooker, or an immersion blender to make it creamy. Just enough liquid, low heat, and a lot of time. By the end of the cooking process, the beans are tender, hearty, and swimming in a broth that tastes like it's been tended all day - because it has. It's the kind of hearty soup that feeds the whole family, warms you up on a cold night, and somehow tastes even better the next time you reheat it. Serve it with cornbread, hot sauce, or a squeeze of lemon juice if that's your thing. There's truly no wrong way. I like to start it first thing in the morning so that this slow cooker soup is ready for dinner time.

Ingredients & Substitutions

This simple recipe relies on pantry staples and flexible swaps. You can easily adapt it based on the kind of bean or broth you have on hand.

• Leftover Ham Bone: A spiral ham bone with meat attached adds richness and salt. A ham hock or ham shank also works well. If you make my crockpot ham with brown sugar pineapple, you should absolutely be making this delicious soup recipe with the leftover bottom half!
• Dried Lima Beans: These hearts beans become buttery and creamy after hours of cooking. You can swap in all kinds of beans. For this easy recipe, lima beans are my favorite, but you could use navy beans, great northern beans, cannellini beans, red kidney beans or white kidney beans if desired.
• Chicken Broth: Low sodium chicken broth gives you control over seasoning. Vegetable broth works too if needed.
• Bay Leaf: Adds subtle depth of flavor. Bay leaves are essential here if you have them!
• Onions: Build the base flavor as they soften during slow cooking.
• Salt & Black Pepper: Season at the end of the cooking time for best results.
• Optional Additions: For some heat, try adding cayenne pepper! For a more hearty meaty finish, try adding ground sausage, bacon grease and a little bit of bacon. If you're feeling fancy, add in a parmesan rind and finish with a drizzle of olive oil and fresh parsley for garnish. 

How to Make It

This slow cooker ham recipe is all about patience and ease.

• PREP THE BEANS: Rinse the dry beans and place beans in a large bowl. Remove any debris or impurities.
• ADD INGREDIENTS: Add the beans, leftover ham bone, onions, bay leaf, chicken broth, and enough liquid to fully cover everything in the crockpot.
• SLOW COOK: Cover and cook on high for 8-10 hours, or until the beans are tender. The cook time will vary depending on the kind of bean used so keep that in mind! Smaller beans will be done way quicker.
• SHRED THE HAM: During the final hour, carefully shred any remaining ham directly into the pot of beans and stir.
• SEASON & FINISH: Remove bay leaves. Season with salt and black pepper at the end of cooking, adjusting to taste.
• SAVE: Let cool to room temperature, then store in an airtight container or freezer bags for later.

What to Serve It With

This hearty bean soup is perfect with cornbread, biscuits, or a slice of buttered toast. It also pairs well with collard greens, chow chow, or a little hot sauce. Fore more tasty related recipes - both bean focused and crockpot focused - try these!

• Tuscan Sausage, Kale, and White Bean Soup
• Cheesy French Onion Crockpot Potatoes
• The Best Frozen Meatballs in Crockpot (3 Ingredient Recipe!)
• Vegetarian Cheesy Sweet Potato & Black Bean Chili
• Japanese Inspired Green Beans
• Refried Beans

Recipe

Southern Crockpot Soup Beans with Ham (Easy & Delicious!)

This Southern Crockpot Soup Beans with Ham is slow-cooked comfort food at its finest. It's a hearty soup made with dried beans, a leftover ham bone, and hours of gentle cooking that build incredible flavor.

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Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 8 hours hrs

Course Soup

Cuisine American, southern

Servings 8 servings

Equipment

• Crockpot

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• 1 Leftover Ham Bone With Meat (ideally the bottom half of a spiral cut ham)
• 12 Cups Chicken Broth
• 2 Pounds Dried Lima Beans
• 1 small Bay Leaf
• 2 small Onions Roughly Chopped
• 2 Teaspoons Kosher Salt
• Fresh Cracked Black Pepper

Instructions

 

• Rinse beans and remove any impurities.
• Add all ingredients to a crockpot and cover.
• Cook on high for 8-10 hours, or until beans are tender.
• Shred remaining ham into the soup and stir.
• Season with salt and pepper to taste.

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Keyword comfort food, Crockpot, easy recipes, soup recipes, southern food

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