I’m gonna be honest with you… I don’t think I ever had Navy Bean Soup prior to making this, but my husband was all about it, and my sister highly recommended it also… so it was a go. He said it was perfect, and I have to AGREE. This soup is now one of my favorites!

Easter Sunday was just a few days ago so we had a full brown sugar torched ham, and a whole lot of leftovers including the bone. So we set off to make a ton of recipes using the leftover ham and this was one of the uses. I will forever be using the ham hock to make this recipe going forward!

Recipe by: The Culinary Nest

MAKES

6-8 servings

Prep Time: 1 hour

Total Time: 2 hours 45 minutes

INGREDIENTS

1 lbs. navy beans, rinsed

1 cooked ham hock

1 medium onion, diced

3 carrots, diced

1 celery stalk, diced

4 garlic cloves, minced

10 parsley sprigs

2 thyme sprigs

2 bay leaves

8 cups vegetable broth

2 cups thick cut cooked ham, diced

Salt & pepper

Cayenne

Optional: top with a little hot sauce like Tabasco, fresh parsley, oyster crackers, sliced toasted bread, garlic bread or croutons for topping!

METHOD

1. In a medium pot, add your rinsed and drained navy beans, cover with about 2” of cold water, and bring to a boil. Lower the heat to simmer for 5 minutes. Remove the pot from heat, cover, and let sit for 1 hour.

2. In the meantime, prep your other ingredients. Using kitchen string, tie together the parsley and thyme sprigs. When the navy beans have about 10 minutes left to rest, in a large dutch oven over medium heat, start sautéing you onions, carrots and celery for about 5 minutes. Next, add in the minced garlic and about 1/4 teaspoon of black pepper. Next, add the vegetable broth, your herb bundle of parlsey and thyme, bay leaves and ham hock. Add the rested navy beans and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to a nice, even simmer, cover and let the soup go for about 1.5 hours, stir occasionally, until the beans are softened and cooked thoroughly.

3. Once the beans are cooked, grab a large bowl and remove the ham hock, bay leaves and herb bundle from the soup pot.

4. Using an immersion blender (or you can transfer half of the soup mixture to a blender and purée), blend the soup contents about half way… you want it to appear lighter and a more creamy texture while still maintaining some texture to the contents.

5. Next, add the 2 cups of diced ham to the soup mixture (you can also pick off any ham left on the ham hock and add this back to the soup if preferred). Simmer for 10 minutes to heat the ham through.

6. Taste for seasoning and salt & pepper as needed (I did not have to add any salt due to the saltiness of the ham). If you like a little heat, sprinkle in some cayenne!

7. Turn off the heat and remove the soup from the hot burner. Let sit, uncovered, for about 15 minutes to allow the soup to slightly cool and continue to thicken (the soup will be thicker the next day also!).

8. Ladle in bowls, grab some of your favorite bread or crackers to dip & enjoy!