Easy Slow Cooker Ham & Bean Soup Recipe - Mom Endeavors (2024)

FAQs

Easy Slow Cooker Ham & Bean Soup Recipe - Mom Endeavors? ›

You can thicken soup by adding flour, cornstarch, or another starchy substitute. For the best results, never add flour or cornstarch directly to your soup. If you do, it will clump up on top. Instead, ladle a small amount of broth into a separate bowl and let it cool.

You can thicken soup by adding flour, cornstarch, or another starchy substitute. For the best results, never add flour or cornstarch directly to your soup. If you do, it will clump up on top. Instead, ladle a small amount of broth into a separate bowl and let it cool.

Add More Beans

One of the simplest ways to thicken up your ham and bean soup is by adding more beans. The beans will naturally release starch as they cook, which will help to thicken the soup.

Turns out cooking dried red kidney beans and cannellini beans in your slow cooker can make you sick. Find out how to eliminate the toxin that can make you ill and how to safely prepare and cook these commonly used legumes.

Cornstarch, potato starch, and chickpea flour are a couple of pantry-friendly ways to thicken soups, stews, and sauces in the slow cooker. Just a tablespoon or two of any — added towards the end of cooking — will thicken sauces especially well.

Not Adding Acid

If a soup is tasting bland in the bowl, consider adding acid rather than salt. A squeeze of lemon or lime, or a dash of yogurt or sour cream can add brightness to the bowl.

Add plain instant mashed potatoes (which are essentially just dehydrated potatoes) to the finished soup recipe as a thickening agent. Simple? Yes.

Is it better to cook beans on low or high? ›

Cook low and slow—patience is key. To cook on the stove, bring the pot of beans (soaked or unsoaked, with olive oil, salt, and any seasonings plus 2 to 3 inches of liquid covering them) to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat so that your beans are barely but steadily simmering and cover with the lid.

Rinsing beans can improve the flavor and texture of the final dish and can help cut down on how much gas they produce. So, for your culinary success and intestinal comfort, give those canned beans a rinse unless your recipe specifically says not to.

There are several ingredients you can add to thicken bean soup while adding flavor at the same time. Try adding tomato paste, pureed vegetables like carrots or potatoes, or even a spoonful of nut butter. These additions will enhance the thickness and taste of your soup.

But depending on the type of soup, you can add heavy cream or even sour cream to get a delicious richness and creaminess. To make soups creamy add: Fresh cream.

Heavy cream

Use heavy cream as a keto-friendly thickening option for your soups and broths. Heavy cream has more fat than regular whole milk, so you can add it to your soup recipes without worrying about it curdling.

Cover and cook on HIGH for 8 to 10 hours, until the beans are tender. All slow cookers are different and can heat things differently, so if yours tends to run hot, check it earlier on. Depending upon your model, there may be some liquid still in the slow cooker.

If you don't have time to presoak, don't sweat it– your beans will still be tender and delicious. However, there is one exception: if you're starting with old beans that have suffered moisture loss (Primary Beans defines as beans older than 2 years from harvest), a presoak may help you achieve evenly cooked beans.

Both methods were ranked as easy, however, considering the amount of cook time required for slow cooker beans, the Instant Pot method comes out on top. The stovetop and oven methods result in beans that were unevenly cooked– some had hard spots while others were mushy.

Hydrolyzed soy protein, maltodextrin, salt, natural and artificial flavors (contains vanillin).