Ham, Sweet Potato and White Bean Soup with Bacon {Slow Cooker}

Slow cooked all day with nearly zero prep, this ham, sweet potato and white bean soup with bacon is smoky, creamy, hearty, and healthy.

Slow cooked all day with nearly zero prep, this soup is smoky and creamy and hearty and delicious.

Rather than being sparkly and trendy and gourmet, this changed-up ham and bean soup is more on the homey, comforting side of the spectrum.

And while I love to get crazy in the kitchen sometimes, days that include low-ish coping skills and hectic schedules have me claiming homey and comforting without thinking twice.

A thoroughly wonderful way to use up ham leftovers (no ham leftovers? no worries; ask your deli to thick-slice ham for you), this is exactly the kind of soup I need to stick to my bones and keep me forging through this terribly long winter currently upon me.

Make this soup! It’s the epitome of warm, winter comfort food (and not too bad for you) and I’m pretty sure it will heal all your trivial sorrows.

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Ham, Sweet Potato and White Bean Soup with Bacon {Slow Cooker}

Yield: 8 servings

Prep Time: 20 minutes mins

Cook Time: 9 hours hrs

Total Time: 9 hours hrs 20 minutes mins

4.49 stars (33 ratings)

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Ingredients

• ½ cup diced yellow or white onion
• 2 cloves garlic, finely minced or pressed
• 2 cups cooked, diced ham (see note)
• 1 large sweet potato, peeled and diced
• 1 pound dry white beans, like Great Northern, rinsed (see note)
• 1 ½ teaspoons paprika (see note)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon black pepper
• 8 cups low-sodium chicken broth
• 4-6 slices bacon or turkey bacon, diced

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Instructions 

• Combine all the ingredients except the bacon in a 5-quart slow cooker and cook on low for 8-9 hours (see the note about presoaking the dry beans).
• Carefully puree 1/2 to 3/4 of the soup in a blender (hot soups like to expand in the blender so only fill the blender halfway and process in batches, if needed). I don’t love the idea of pureeing ham, call me crazy, so I tried my best to scoop out ladles of soup to blend that were free of ham. Alternately, you could use an immersion blender and get in there with it and go to town (leaving the soup with as much texture as you desire).
• Add additional salt and pepper to taste, if needed.
• Cook the bacon in a hot skillet until crisp; drain on paper towels. Serve the soup with crumbled bacon on top.

Notes

Smoky Flavor: if you want to up the smoky flavor of this delicious soup, sub in smoked paprika for the regular.

Beans: I’ve made this soup twice and the dry beans cooked perfectly tender without being presoaked, however, several people commented in this recipe that their beans weren’t quite tender (especially those that live at high altitude) after slow cooking all day, so if that concerns you, soak the beans in cool water overnight before using in the recipe.

Ham: a recipe like this yields the perfect style of ham for this recipe; however, if you don’t have any leftover ham, your neighborhood deli is a great place to buy – have them slice the ham thick so the dices of ham are chunky rather than thin.

Freezable: this cooked and cooled soup freezes magnificently.

Author: Mel

Course: Soup

Cuisine: American

Method: Slow Cooker

Calories: 359kcal, Carbohydrates: 47g, Protein: 26g, Fat: 8g, Saturated Fat: 3g, Cholesterol: 22mg, Sodium: 811mg, Fiber: 10g, Sugar: 4g

Recommended Products

8-Quart Slow Cooker

Immersion Blender

Garlic Press

Recipe Source: adapted from Everyday Reading, inspired from Our Best Bites

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