{"id":5175,"date":"2026-05-18T21:54:54","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T21:54:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/recipes.ukbiddingdirectory.com\/?p=5175"},"modified":"2026-05-18T21:54:54","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T21:54:54","slug":"ham-and-bean-soup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/recipes.ukbiddingdirectory.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/18\/ham-and-bean-soup\/","title":{"rendered":"Ham and Bean Soup"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Ham and Bean Soup (Classic Comfort)<\/h2>\n<h3>Ingredients<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>1 lb dried <strong>navy beans<\/strong> or <strong>great northern beans<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>8 cups water or chicken broth<\/li>\n<li>1 ham bone <strong>or<\/strong> 2 cups diced cooked ham<\/li>\n<li>1 small onion, diced<\/li>\n<li>2 carrots, sliced<\/li>\n<li>2 celery stalks, sliced<\/li>\n<li>3 cloves garlic, minced<\/li>\n<li>1 bay leaf<\/li>\n<li>1 tsp dried thyme<\/li>\n<li>\u00bd tsp black pepper<\/li>\n<li>Salt to taste (add after cooking \u2014 ham is salty)<\/li>\n<li>Optional: 1 tbsp olive oil or butter<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Instructions<\/h3>\n<h4>1) Soak the beans<\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li>Rinse and sort beans.<\/li>\n<li>Soak overnight in water <strong>or<\/strong> quick-soak: boil 2 minutes, cover, rest 1 hour, drain.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4>2) Saut\u00e9 aromatics<\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li>In a large pot, heat oil\/butter.<\/li>\n<li>Saut\u00e9 onion, carrots, celery for 5 minutes.<\/li>\n<li>Add garlic; cook 30 seconds.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4>3) Simmer<\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li>Add soaked beans, ham bone (or ham), bay leaf, thyme, pepper.<\/li>\n<li>Pour in 8 cups water\/broth.<\/li>\n<li>Bring to a boil, then reduce to a gentle simmer.<\/li>\n<li>Cover and cook <strong>1\u00bd\u20132 hours<\/strong>, until beans are tender.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4>4) Finish<\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li>Remove ham bone, shred any meat, return to pot.<\/li>\n<li>Discard bay leaf.<\/li>\n<li>Taste and add salt if needed.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Optional Add-Ins<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Diced potatoes (add in last 40 minutes)<\/li>\n<li>A splash of apple cider vinegar (brightens flavor)<\/li>\n<li>Chopped parsley to serve<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Slow Cooker Method<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Add everything to the slow cooker.<\/li>\n<li>Cook <strong>8 hours on LOW<\/strong> or <strong>4\u20135 hours on HIGH<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Storage<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Even better the next day.<\/li>\n<li>Fridge: 4\u20135 days<\/li>\n<li>Freezer: up to 3 months<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Serve hot with crusty bread or cornbread. This is humble, budget-friendly comfort at its best.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ham and Bean Soup (Classic Comfort) Ingredients 1 lb dried navy beans or great northern beans 8 cups water or&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5176,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-recipe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/recipes.ukbiddingdirectory.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/recipes.ukbiddingdirectory.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/recipes.ukbiddingdirectory.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/recipes.ukbiddingdirectory.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/recipes.ukbiddingdirectory.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5175"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/recipes.ukbiddingdirectory.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5175\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5177,"href":"https:\/\/recipes.ukbiddingdirectory.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5175\/revisions\/5177"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/recipes.ukbiddingdirectory.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/recipes.ukbiddingdirectory.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/recipes.ukbiddingdirectory.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/recipes.ukbiddingdirectory.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}