Soup is practically synonymous with fall, isn’t it? After months of eating salads and other chilled or room-temperature dishes for lunch, the temperatures drop and suddenly all I want is soup. On a blustery fall day, winds howling and fallen leaves swirling, I want this soup — thick, chunky, and hauntingly smoky — preferably with a chunk of bread still warm from the oven.
Of all the magical things an Instant Pot can do, perhaps the most amazing is the way it’s transformed the process for making bean soups, eliminating the soaking and pre-cooking that were so time consuming — and so unpredictable, depending on the age and pedigree of your beans.
If you don’t have an Instant Pot you still can and should make this soup. There are two ways you can go:
- Use two 15-ounce cans of navy beans, drained and rinsed.
- Or, use 8 ounces of dried beans, pre-cooked: Soak the beans by rinsing them then putting them in a large bowl and covering them with enough cool water to come up 2 inches above the beans. Put the bowl in the refrigerator overnight. The next day, pour off the water and transfer the beans to a medium saucepan, and cover them with cool water to come up 1 inch above the beans. Bring the pot to a simmer over medium high heat, then lower the heat, partially cover the pot, and maintain the pot at a gentle simmer until the beans are soft, adding more water if needed to keep the beans covered. Navy beans should take about 90 minutes to get soft; test several beans to be sure, and keep simmering until the beans are completely soft with no al dente resistance in the center. Drain the beans.
- Either way, follow the recipe to perform the saute steps on the stove in a soup pot over medium heat. Then add the tomatoes, ham hock, bay leaf, and 3 (instead of 4) cups of chicken broth. Bring the soup to a simmer then reduce the heat and put a lid on the pot, slightly askew. Simmer, partially covered, for 45 minutes. Stir in the cooked or canned beans and the chopped ham and simmer, uncovered, for 15 minutes. Remove the ham hock and bay leaf before serving.
Making this ahead and what to do with leftovers:
- This soup will keep in the refrigerator for 5 days and also freezes well, for making ahead and/or keeping leftovers.
Navy Bean Soup with Ham
November 4, 2019
: 4 to 6
: Easy
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons bacon fat or neutral oil (such as expeller-pressed canola oil)
- 1 cup chopped onion (1 medium onion)
- 1 cup chopped carrots (2 or 3 carrots)
- ½ cup chopped celery (1 large stalk)
- Kosher salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme
- 1/8 teaspoon ground cayenne
- One 14-ounce can fire-roasted diced tomatoes
- 8 ounces dried navy beans, picked over and rinsed
- 4 cups chicken broth
- 1 meaty bone from a smoked ham, or 1 smoked ham hock
- 1 bay leaf
- 8 ounces smoked ham, chopped into ¾” pieces
Directions
- Step 1 Turn on the Instant Pot’s Saute function and select the medium or normal heat level. When the pot is hot, add the bacon fat or oil and heat the fat until it’s hot. Add the onion, carrot and celery, and season with a few pinches of kosher salt and a couple of grinds of pepper. Saute the mixture for 5 minutes. Add the thyme and cayenne and cook 1 more minute. Turn off the Saute mode.
- Step 2 Add the tomatoes with their juices, the beans, chicken broth, ham bone or hock, and the bay leaf. Close and seal the lid and set the pot to Pressure Cook on high pressure for 35 minutes. When the cooking time is done, release the pressure manually.
- Step 3 Taste a couple of beans to test for softness. (You have to sample more than one to be sure, since sometimes beans can cook unevenly.) If the beans are still hard and chalky in the center, cook the soup for 5 more minutes. Close and seal the lid, and Pressure Cook on high pressure for 5 minutes, then release the pressure manually and test the beans again. They should be soft. If they’re not, repeat this step and cook for 5 minutes more, then re-test.
- Step 4 Once the beans are soft, remove the bay leaf and ham bone and stir in the chopped ham. One more time, close and seal the lid, and Pressure Cook on high for 5 minutes. When the cooking time is done, the ham should be heated through and the beans should be so soft they’re starting to fall apart. Taste and adjust the seasonings.
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