15 Bean Soup is the Perfect Budget Meal to Make in the Crockpot!
15 bean soup starts with a cheap under $3 bag of dried beans and ends as a comforting delicious meal.
Are soups your go-to dinner for cold evenings? 🍲
Grab a bag of Hurst 15 bean soup dried beans and make a batch of warm ham and bean soup using your slow cooker. This is a no-soak method that slow cooks most of the day and then you can dig into a hearty bowl of soup at dinnertime. I love the convenient flavor packet that comes with the beans, as it’s a delicious combo with the ham and veggies.
15 bean soup is an easy-from-scratch budget meal.
I calculated the ingredients from Walmart.com and this large soup recipe makes about 8 two-cup servings at just $1.87 a serving! 👏
What beans are in Hurst’s 15 Bean soup?
This bag of dried beans contains 15 bean varieties: northern, pinto, large lima, yelloweye, garbanzo, baby lima, green split, kidney, cranberry, small white, pink, small red, yellow split, lentil, navy, white kidney, and black bean.
Slow Cooker 15 Bean Soup
yield: 8 SERVINGS
prep time: 15 MINUTES
cook time: 8 HOURS
total time: 8 HOURS 15 MINUTES
Hearty ham and bean soup using a 15 bean mix and seasoning packet.
Ingredients
- 1 package 15 Bean Soup mix
- 8 cups chicken or vegetable broth
- 2 cups water
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 pound fully-cooked diced ham
- 15 oz. can diced tomatoes
- 1 tablespoon chili powder
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 large carrot, chopped
- 2 stalks celery, chopped
Directions
1
Rince the beans on a colander with water and discard any debris. Place the beans in the slow cooker, reserving the seasoning packet for step 3.
2
Pour in the broth and water. Add the chopped onion, garlic, and ham. Stir well. Place the lid on the slow cooker and cook for about 6-7 hours until the beans are tender.
3
Add the diced tomatoes, the seasoning packet that came with beans, chili powder, and lemon juice. Add the chopped carrots and celery. Stir, and cook for another 40 minutes, or up to an hour. Keep warm until ready to serve. Enjoy!
Additional Notes
Recipe adapted from HurstBeans.com.
Tips for making the best 15 bean soup:
- You can use ham or cooked sausage in this recipe idea instead. A ham hock would also be a great way to add flavor. After the holidays or Easter, this is a perfect way to use up any extra ham.
- This makes lots of soup, about 4 quarts, but luckily 15 bean soup freezes well. Transfer to jars or airtight containers and freeze for 3 months.
- If you wanted a thicker soup, consider mashing it lightly with an immersion blender a few times.
This ham and bean soup is a lifesaver on busy weeknights.
When I can prep a meal in the morning using the slow cooker, I feel super productive and know my evening will run smoother. This helps us not eat out as much and enjoy some yummy meals at home!
The broth portion of this soup is so comforting and full of flavor. It’s a meal everyone can get on board with. Serve with a roll or crusty bread for a delicious soup experience!
Some don’t know that this on its own is vegan and kosher! All hurst products are vegan. So omit the meat, and use vegetable stock and you have a great vegan option!
Yes! Thanks so much for adding that. Great tip.
I make with Thanksgiving and Christmas ham bone(purposely leave meat on it). I cut up carrots & add spinach too. So good!
Yum! Great ideas ❤️
Do you think you Could substitute chicken
Yes I do. Great idea!
One can cut the cost on this by replacing the cartons of pre-packaged broth with home-made. That cuts about $4 to $6 off the ingredient total. You can easily make your own chicken broth out of the left over bones from a rotisserie chicken. You can also make your own veg broth from the scraps of of your organic veg (including potato peels, onion skins, carrott & celery ends, garlic ends and peels, and mushroom stems) — store your scraps in the freezer in a gallon ziplock bag, then make “free” veg stock out of “trash” once the bag is full (just avoid too many greens). Store broth in mason jars in the fridge until ready to use (or freeze it). If you can’t handle that, use jarred vegetable base + hot water. I often pressure cook my (vegan) beans in water and then add a spoonful of veg base at the very end.
Thanks for sharing these helpful tips and suggestions, Maggie! 💓
Here in FL Hurst also sells a Cajun version of the 15 bean soup which is great if you like a little spice. I use the Cajun version and add a can of Rotel instead of diced tomatoes.
Oh awesome! Sounds yum, Kim. Thanks for sharing ❤️
Did you know cooking beans in a slow cooker is not safe? There’s a toxin in beans that’s only killed by boiling them, stovetop. It would present like food poisoning.
This is so interesting! I have always done it with pinto beans and this Hurst mix. On high it pretty much does boil. I do see now lots of warnings about kidney beans online. Sounds like boiling for ten minutes first may not be a bad idea. These slow cooker directions are on the Hurst site, so I have reached out to them to get some insight just fyi 😀 Thanks for bringing that up Amy!
I agree Amy. I’m sure different crockpots do heat differently. I have an oval crock pot brand one. The recipe says high for 6-8 hours. When I make this recipe in the crockpot on high it boils for several hours (3-4 hours, full boil) so it is never a concern.
Amy glad you posted this I was pumped when I read this recipe.. had it in my crockpot cooking TODAY and of course then saw your comment 😭did some more reading and yup not worth the risk without boiling.. oh well glad it happened with a frugal recipe instead of something $$$! And of course more glad I researched before giving to kiddos.. live and learn right?
Perfect. I have a bag of these brands in the pantry and was thinking the other day that I need to cook them. This sounds good!