We’ve had a few days of fall-like weather here in Oregon. I don’t know about you, when the fall weather kicks in I am ready for soup! So I decided to make Slow Cooker Bean and Bacon soup this week.
The recipe for Slow Cooker Bean and Bacon Soup is very similar to Bean and Ham Soup but with bacon. I thought for a second to leave out the ham hock; could there be too much pork flavor? Nope. I’m glad used a ham hock. It gave the soup a perfect smoky flavor. I also decided to try fresh tomatoes instead of canned for this soup and those turned out better than canned. The soup has a little prep work like soaking the beans, frying bacon and chopping vegetables. But really not too bad for homemade comforting soup!
I also wanted to mention to not forget cornbread and butter. The sweet cornbread and butter compliment the smoky soup just right!
Ingredients
- 1 1-lb. bag dried small white beans
- 5 cups water
- 2 chicken bouillon cubes.
- 1/2 cup diced white onion
- 3 Roma Tomatoes diced
- 2 peeled and chopped carrots
- 1 garlic clove minced
- 1/2 tsp. dried thyme
- 1/4 tsp. pepper
- 8 slices thick-cut apple wood smoked bacon cooked and chopped
- 1 small ham hock
- salt to taste add when done
- cornbread and butter to taste
Instructions
- The night before soak the beans. I do this by placing the beans in the slow cooker (sorting any rocks or dirt clumps out). Cover with water (about 4 inches of water above the beans) DON'T TURN ON THE SLOW COOKER YET! Let the beans soak in the water overnight.
- Drain the water off the beans in the morning.
- Add the fresh 5 cups of water, chicken bouillon cubes, onion, tomatoes, carrots, garlic, thyme, pepper, and cooked and chopped bacon. Stir.
- Add the ham hock.
- Cover and cook on LOW for 10 hours, without opening the lid during the cooking time.
- Remove the ham hock. Remove meat from ham hock and put into soup if desired.
- Stir, add salt to taste.
- Serve with cornbread and butter.
I made this with 2 ham hocks because that’s how the grocery store packaged them. This soup was amazingly delicious and rich. I’m making it for guests this weekend. Thanks for this recipe – 5 stars.
Can you recommend something that supplies the pork flavor of the ham hock, but without the hock? Do the think the bacon would give enough ham flavor and add a little liquid smoke if we wanted a Smokey flavor?
You could do diced ham too? Or just bacon and maybe a half teaspoon of liquid smoke.
We are prepping this now to put in the pot in the am so it will be ready when we get home from work. Thank you for sharing and looking forward to the yum!! Woot!
Let me know how you like it Lee!