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Boy, (or girl) do I have an easy recipe for you today. This Black Bean and Ham soup is full of flavor, very filling and loaded with healthy goodness. (At least, it’s healthy to me, man. Please don’t email me any information on the hazards of bullion cubes. I just don’t think I can take it. 🙂 Thank you for your cooperation. You are such a kind, compassionate reader.
Besides being fabulous in taste, this baby only requires a short 15 minutes of prep work. Toss it all in the crock pot and let it simmer away throughout the day and you will have a wonderful little meal on your hands. Sound good?
I thought so!
Let me show you how easy it is…
PS…this soup actually has a lot more broth than these pictures indicate. It is definitely more of a soup than a chili. I ended up taking the pictures of the final product the day after I made it for dinner and the beans really soaked up a lot of the broth. So, please take note. Your soup will have some broth. 🙂
1. Chop up 4 cloves of garlic, 1 bell pepper (I used several small orange and yellow sweet peppers) and 1 onion.
2. Heat a medium-sized skillet up over medium high heat. Add 1 tablespoon of oil. When it’s nice and hot toss your vegetables in. Let them cook, stirring occasionally until the onions are translucent. Should take about 5 minutes. When they are cooked, toss them into your crock pot. I used a 7 quart crock pot, but I think you could get by with one as small as a 4 quart.
3. Chop up 2 cups of ham and add them to the pot.
4. Drain and rinse 4 cans of black beans. Add them to the pot.
5. Pour 3 cups chicken broth and 2 cups of hot water over the black beans.
6. Add 1/2 teaspoon cumin. (Just go along with the picture up above. The jar missing a label is cumin. Promise. Cross my heart and hope to die). Add 1/2 teaspoon of oregano and 1/2 teaspoon of thyme.
7. Toss one bay leaf into that pretty crock pot of yours and give everything a nice stir. Cover your crock and let it cook for 4-6 hours on low.
Serve with sour cream, cheese and tortilla chips.
Enjoy!
Ingredients
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 red, orange or green pepper, chopped
- 1 small onion, chopped
- 1 T olive oil
- 2 C ham, chopped
- 4 (15 ounce) cans black beans, rinsed and drained
- 3 C chicken broth (I used 3 C water + 3 chicken bullion cubes)
- 2 C hot water
- 1/2 t cumin
- 1/2 t thyme
- 1/2 t oregano
- 1 bay leaf
Instructions
1. Chop up 4 cloves of garlic, 1 bell pepper (I used several small orange and yellow sweet peppers) and 1 onion.
2. Heat a medium-sized skillet up over medium high heat. Add 1 tablespoon of oil. When it's nice and hot toss your vegetables in. Let them cook, stirring occasionally until the onions are translucent. Should take about 5 minutes. When they are cooked, toss them into your crock pot. I used a 7 quart crock pot, but I think you could get by with one as small as a 4 quart.
3. Chop up 2 cups of ham and add them to the pot.
4. Drain and rinse 4 cans of black beans. Add them to the pot.
5. Pour 3 cups chicken broth and 2 cups of hot water over the black beans.
6. Add 1/2 teaspoon cumin. (Just go along with the picture up above. The jar missing a label is cumin. Promise. Cross my heart and hope to die). Add 1/2 teaspoon of oregano and 1/2 teaspoon of thyme.
7. Toss one bay leaf into that pretty crock pot of yours and give everything a nice stir. Cover your crock and let it cook for 4-6 hours on low.
Serve with sour cream, cheese and tortilla chips.
Enjoy!
Recipe from Jamie Cooks It Up!
I love ham and bean soups – so comforting and delicious!
Jamie
This is similar to a family favorite we call Cuban Black Bean Soup. We like to put the left overs over rice and then chop a boiled egg on top. In fact my boys prefer the “leftover” style to the original. You should give it a try.
Sounds lovely! I may try this one, but I will leave out the pepper as even the smell of them makes me heave.
This looks delicious, black beans are one of my faves!
Made this for dinner tonight. We didn’t care for it. Just not our taste. Thanks for sharing though. We love a lot of your recipes.
I read your blog this morning, and had to make this for dinner tonight. We LOVED it! I didn’t have canned beans, so I pressure cooked a batch this morning and they worked great. I also used powdered garlic and onion…and they worked great as well. Oh, and my last substitution was turkey ham (because that was all I had on hand). Wonderful recipe…my hubby and children gobbled it right up! Thanks for helping me get a healthy, inexpensive meal on the table :)!
Sounds great; have ham from Christmas in the freezer I need to use – prefer to cook dried beans, so will probably do that instead of canned.
I made this today. The flavors were there, but would have liked a bit more body. I used 2 cans of chicken broth and 1 cup water. Might leave out the water next time and also will puree 1 can of the beans. Ended up using 3 cans of reduced sodium beans and 1 reg. and it definitely didn’t need any salt. Served with hot cornbread. Also, might add a can of green chilis next time. thanks for the recipe.
My husband and I both rated this soup “good” the first night. The second night it rated “amazing.” One of the few dishes that I prefer the left overs over the fresh first night meal. As the soup sat in the fridge it continued to mix flavors and the beans absorbed the other tastes so by the second night it was really tasty. Now we are fighting over who gets to have the leftovers.