Creamy White Bean Soup with Smoked Ham Hocks

This recipe is a keeper! I actually didn't have time to cook the veggies, so I just put everything in the crock pot and turned it on low. I began checking at about 6 hours as I didn't want to over cook the beans, so I turned it to low at about 7 hours. I probably could have stopped it a little sooner. I, like some others, also took some out and pureed it to make it creamier. This was just fantastic! My husband loved it too. I served with a crusty french loaf and butter, but next time I will serve with corn bread!

My 8 yr old grandson who is a very picky eater loved it! He ate several bowls and took the left overs home!

This worked out perfect - of course I did something different. Instead of using a crock pot for 8 hours I did everything in my cast iron dutch oven. I set it at 325 º F in oven set timer for 5 hours. I checked at 3.5 hours and beans were nearly done. I let it go the 5 hours but should have pulled it at 4. Also I used 2x 32oz broths but initially added 52oz., per the recipe. At 3.5 hour it soaked up a lot of the broth so I added the rest of the 2nd container. I think it could use one more ham hock. Have a nice day!

This turned into a big gloppy, starchy mess. I continued to add more chicken stock, and more chicken and finally water and the beans just sucked up all the liquid. I have lots of it and certainly wouldn't share it and can't bring myself to throw it away. Anybody have any suggestions? The picture shows a nice brothy soup......not really.

I've made this a few times and the hubs and I always enjoy. It is definitely better the next day which makes it an even better recipe so I always make it a day or two before I serve it. I've always loved the combination of ham and beans coming from the Pennsylvania Dutch Country. This is a fancy version of the traditional ham and bean soup I grew up on. I just think a creamy white bean soup with ham calls for fresh thyme so I omit the chives and add a few sprigs of fresh time tied together right in the beginning. Just dreamy.

I make this ALOT! I do add something else just to kick it up a notch...add a few tablespoons of tomato paste. You'll be surprised at just how good it is.

This is so delicious and easy.

I put it on low for 6 hours, then cut the fat and took the bones out, then put on high for an hour or so.

I used 2 lbs of smoked ham hocks. Tons of meat but we had our own pig butchered so of course it was amazing cuts of meat.

Everything else I didn't really measure. Just made sure the beans were covered with liquid. Didn't pre soak and they were perfect.

This was very good. Made as written, but ended up adding some polish sausage at The end when there was almost no meat on the cooked ham hocks. Served with corn bread. Good, filling winter meal. Will make again for sure.

I really enjoyed this recipe. It is actually better the next day! I followed the directions and ingredients exactly. Definitely making this again. Perfect for fall/winter!!

This soup came out only so-so.  I did as someone suggested and cooked the ham hocks separately, refrigerated overnight and then skimmed off the fat.  Then I cooked the rest of the ingredients, added the meat from the ham hocks (discarding the fat, skin and bones) and refrigerated that overnight.  The next day, when heated up, the soup was still greasy.  It also had an "off" taste -- I'm pretty sure it was the thyme,evidently a spice I'm not fond of.  Will have it for dinner and save the leftovers, but will not make again.

I love ham hocks.  They are great and flavorful when cooking greens.  I buy them at BJ's off Old Wake Forest Rd in Raleigh, NC. : )  I hope this reply will convince you to not give up on ham hocks. : )

I likely won't make this again because of the difficulty of finding ham hocks at the market. I actually used a boneless smoked ham, half during the first 6 hours which I removed and discarded, cooking the last half in the last 2 hours. Shredded the meat and added it back in just after using my immersion blender to cream the beans a bit. The flavor was good and it was nice a creamy. The family liked it.

I've made this twice with great success. I don't know why but the flavors remind me of.... old fashioned food, and in a very good way. The only changes I made were 1) used one large (1.4) lb smoked ham shank instead of two hocks because that's what Whole Foods had and 2) at the end when I took the ham hock out, I used an immersion blender on the soup (not the ham) and blended it a bit to get the broth creamy. I've read some complaints from other reviewers about greasy soup and no meat on the ham. I didn't have either of those problems so I think that has to do more with the quality of the ham rather than the recipe itself. I like the ideas people here had about using sausage or leftover ham -- I think either would work well.

Pretty tasty. I made a few minor substitutions according to what I had on hand. I did not have no sodium chicken broth so I used half regular chicken broth and half water. I also used dried thyme instead of fresh and chopped leftover ham instead of ham hocks. I was wondering how the beans would turn out without a pre-soak, but they were plenty soft. After the soup was done cooking I used a potato masher to mash it up a little and make it creamier. I would make this again if I had leftover ham to use up.

Used homemade veg broth and leftover ham bone that we had smoked...tried to cut as much fat off as possible. Cooked on the stovetop instead of slow cooker. Brought to boil, reduce to simmer and cooked for 2 hrs. Probably didn't need to cook that long, but it was still great for a rainy evening.

We loved this, but I did make a couple of changes. Since I did not have low sodium chicken stock, I used regular chicken broth but added a cup or two of water to dilute saltiness. I also did not use ham hocks, but used smoked ham instead. Came out great!

This was excellent full of flavor. Definitely making this again.

Very easy to make! Great comfort food! I've used the ham hocks and also used diced ham. Both are excellent.

Flavor was there but mine was so greasy it was inedible

Apparently I'm in the minority, but I thought this was terrible. Made recipe exactly as directed. I think the beans got overcooked. One could call the resulting texture creamy-- but I would say gelatinous. Had almost no flavor; definitely needed more salt. Too bad the recipe makes so much - tried to eat my way through it, but I think half is going to go in the trash.

Very good. Made exactly as written only I used a pressure cooker. Cooked on high for 45 minutes with a natural release.

This was a big hit in our family. Very tasty and filling. I used leftover ham from Christmas which I had frozen and thawed before adding about halfway through the cooking process. I did soak my beans, because I was nervous about not doing so. I've always soaked them prior to cooking, so I stuck with what I know best. I poured off most of the soaking water and then added a quart of chicken stock before cooking. Yum-ee.

This was fantastic! I used it as a freezer meal, meaning I put everything in the recipe except for the dried beans in a large freezer bag uncooked, then, when I was ready, I thawed it, dumped in the crock pot with the beans, and cooked it overnight. That was easy, affordable, and a big hit with my whole family.

My beans were hard. I cooked it for 12 hours and they were still hard. Also, it didn't have much flavor. Probably won't make it again.

Delicious. One tip for those of you that are as frustrated with ham hocks as I am. I love the taste of them, but I always seem to get the all fat-no meat kind. Throw the hocks and the broth in your slow cooker the day before you want to make the soup. cook on low for 8 hours. You will have this marvelous gelatinous rich broth. Take the hocks out and chill the broth overnight. The fat will be easy to skim off the top and you will have control of just how much fat you want in your final dish. Cook the soup as directed minus the hocks, adding any meat you could find on the hocks at the end of cooking time.

I let this go too long in the slow cooker, but the flavors were great and two of us ate the leftovers for days! We added our leftover ham bone from Christmas along with the ham hocks. The extra ham was nice but I'm sure it added calories. We will make this again.

Super easy to make. I did soak the beans overnight out of habit. My hock was VERY meaty, so it's a hearty dish. And there was a lot of fat, so I refrigerated the soup to remove the layer of fat from the top. Long process, but worth it.

This is soup is very good. It's quick to throw together in the crock pot and forget about it. I've made this twice. The first time I made it the ham hocks I used didn't have that much meat on them. The second time, plenty of meat. Can't figure that one, but all in all this is a keeper. My husband loved it. In reading another review the person stated the left the fresh thyme out. I did as well only because I overlooked it "twice". Now I've got to try it with the fresh thyme.

Really good. The husband said it was almost as good as his mother's bean soup which is a very high bar. Very easy to make as well. I did change a few things. I didn't have any thyme on hand so I left it out. I didn't have low sodium chicken broth so I just used regular organic broth. Also, I like bean soup pretty creamy so I did use an emersion blender to make the soup creamier and then added the meat back in. I will definitely make this again.

This is a keeper. Definitely a great comfort dish. Easy to make and it freezes well. Only change is I may add more thyme the next I make it.

Best white bean soup I have ever made. The smoked ham hocks lend an amazing flavor to this soup. I was skeptical about the amount of meat I got off the ham hocks - it seemed like so little - but it ended up to be perfect. I mashed the soup just a bit with a potato masher before serving to make it creamier.

My whole family loved this soup. I used sliced sausage instead of ham hocks and it was great.

Nice robust flavor. Only used 10oz ham hock and had to use one can great northern beans and one can black beans. Made 6 2 cup portions; 5 WW Pts.

This was just yummy! I cut the beans and broth in half for a 3 qt. slow cooker. That might have made it extra savory. One ham hock is enough. More makes it too salty.

This soup is very flavorful and hearty. My whole family loved it! I followed the recipe exactly with the exception of using ham shanks instead of ham hocks because that is what my grocery store had available. Ham shanks are full of meat and I highly recommend that substitution. Delicious soup, it is going in my favorites file!

I made this exactly as directed except I used a left-over Honey Baked Ham bone, from which I had shaved the left-over meat. I also cut off all the visible, accessible-to-a-knife fat. Then I added our trimmed-of-fat, left-over ham (about 1 cup) to the soup. I also pureed about 1/2 of it (after removing the bone and before adding the meat), since I like it like that. We ate it like that, and it was wonderful, but as it sat while we ate, it started to thicken more, so I added a little more no-salt broth. Don't add salt until the very end, for sure. Any ham has a lot of salt!

Made this tonight. My store didn't have smoked ham hocks but they did have smoked pork hocks. I don't know if they're the same or not.... But the good part is the soup had a wonderful flavor. The bad parts are there was NO meat on them (just fat and bones) and the soup is very greasy. Since we were expecting a meaty meal, I improvised by adding chopped, sautéed smoked turkey sausage to it. It was very tasty, but I'm looking forward to tomorrow's leftovers so I can skim the fat before heating. If ham hocks and pork hocks are totally different things, then this was my mistake!