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Instant Pot Ham Hock and Bean Soup is a hearty classic you can make in your pressure cooker. Great flavor from a smoky ham hock, thyme, garlic, and bay leaves. You don’t even have to soak the beans if you don’t want to! This pressure cooker ham hock and beans soup recipe is adapted from my mom’s.
Instant Pot Ham Hock and Bean Soup
I know there’s a month of Summer left, but I’m ready for all of the comfort foods of Fall! Pumpkin everything is already circulating online, so others must be feeling it too. So starts my Instant Pot Soup recipes posts!
Once again, I’m turning to my trusty Instant Pot® to make this Instant Pot Ham Hock and Bean Soup. No need to have a pot boiling on the stove for a few hours, and I didn’t start it early enough to use my crock pot.
In the electric pressure cooker this soup only takes about an hour. That includes the warm up and natural release time. Not bad! Just keep in mind that old beans will take longer to cook.
It is almost impossible to tell how old beans are, so just cook the recipe per instructions, leaving yourself a 15 to 25 minute window of time in case you need to add more time.
Also, on a warm day, I’m not heating up my kitchen. I say that all the time, but it is a huge reason why I will choose to make something like this in the Summer!
This pressure cooker ham hock and beans soup is total comfort food, and sure brings back my childhood!
I have over 70 Instant Pot Soup recipes here on the blog. You can use the search bar in the menu area to search, or search all of my Instant Pot soups here: Instant Pot Soups
Instant Pot Zuppa Toscana (Sausage Potato Soup)
Instant Pot Beef Barley Vegetable Soup
Sandy’s Instant Pot Beef Stew
Instant Pot Mushroom Soup
Did you make this tasty Instant Pot Beans recipe? Please leave a comment with a star rating below. I’d love to know how you like it!
Instant Pot Ham Hock and Bean Soup
Ingredients
- 1 ½ lbs Ham Hock or meaty ham bone (I use 1 large ham hock)
- 1 lb Navy Beans* (dry, or soaked 2 hours)
- 6 cups Low Sodium Broth or Water, chicken or pork
- 1 large Yellow Onion, chopped
- 3 ribs Celery, chopped
- 3 Carrots, chopped (larger pieces for firmer veggies)
- 4 Garlic Cloves, finely minced
- 2 Bay Leaves
- 3 sprigs Fresh Thyme (or ¼ teaspoon dried)
- ⅓ cup Fresh Flat Leaf Parsley, chopped
- ½ teaspoon Kosher Salt
- ½ teaspoon Black Pepper
Instructions
- Add all ingredients to the inner liner of the Instant Pot. Stir (Make sure the beans are fully submerged so you don't get any crunchy ones).
- Put the lid on, and set the steam release knob to the Sealing position.
- Press the Pressure Cook or Manual button or dial, then the +/- button or dial to choose 45 minutes.
- When the cooking cycle ends, turn off the pot and let it sit undisturbed to naturally release pressure for 20 minutes.
- Carefully release the remaining steam manually, using short bursts at first to make sure the soup won't spew out of the steam release knob. When all steam is out of the pot, and the pin in the lid drops, open the lid facing it away from you.
- Serve hot with some nice bread or rolls.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I made this with dried great northern beans, no soaking. The ones on the top (not completely submerged) were a smidge undercooked after 40 minutes. If I do it again, I’d make sure the beans went in first so that they were 100% submerged to ensure they all cook the same.
Great recipe though! Really flavorful and good!
Hi Ben, Yes, just like cooking dry pasta, you want the beans submerged. Thank you for the feedback, and the review! I’m glad you enjoyed this recipe!
Can I use the soup button instead of bean/stew?
Yes, as long as it is set to High Pressure. You could also use the Pressure Cook/Manual button.
This recipe is absolutely delicious! I used Great Northern beans. Soaked for 2 hrs and cooked for 1 hour, they weren’t nearly done. I cooked an additional hour and they were perfect.
Hi Connie! It’s hard to make this recipe with consistency as beans vary so much. Old beans take longer to cook, and some varieties take longer than others. My best advice is to always allow yourself a little time cushion when cooking beans, in case you need to add some time, as you did. I’m glad you enjoyed the recipe! Thank you for the feedback!
Great , tasty and fast , we are new to IPot , thanks for recipe
My beans are dated best by Oct. 2018 but it took an hour of pressure cooking to get them to my preferred softness. Otherwise I really enjoyed them. The ham hock enjoyed that extra cooking time too.
Hi Terry, you just never know with beans. I like to allow for extra time, just in case! And yes, those ham hocks are better the longer they cook! Thank you for your review!
Will this recipe fit in the 3 qt IP?
No, I would reduce it a bit to make it fit.
Hello, I don’t have a IP but I have the Power Cooker Plus and this is a recipe I’ve been looking for beans, I will be trying this . Thank you so much. Ronda
So I want to try this…do you use fresh pork hocks or precooked smoked ones??
Hi Kecia, I prefer the smoked ham hocks for that flavor!
Sorry for jumping in late to this–HAM hock, not pork hocks. Yes, smoked ham hocks are better than plain ham hocks. Do not use pork hocks–they are uncured (Ham being cured pork). I made the mistake once of trying pork hocks in soup instead of ham–pitched the whole works. Edible, yes; tasty, no.
BTW–cooking this recipe as we speak.
WOW! The flavor was AMAZING! Everything was spot on! THIS WAS MY FIRST RECIPE IN MY IP! Thanks for making it so easy! 🙂 So, I hope you answer a few questions…
1. I had a cooked ham bone, and soaked beans. The texture was a bit mushy for my bunch…would I just cook for 5 minutes less?
2. After 35 minutes, you said turn it off. I did, then ran to get my boy from school. When I came home, I expected the pressure valve to be down. It was not, so I did the manual release and it took forever! When all the steam was gone, I opened it up and it was boiling!!!! WOW….Why didn’t it release naturally???
Thanks so much! I will be checking out many of your recipes!! Happy Cooking
Hi Amy, so happy you liked this recipe! To answer your questions: 1) 35 minutes is when you have only soaked the beans about 2 hours. If that was the case, and that is how long you soaked them, then either don’t soak them next time and try the same time, or cook them about 5 or 10 minutes less. 2) After the cook time ends, set a timer to keep track of the natural release time. You want to let it sit undisturbed for 20 to 30 minutes. It will be naturally releasing during this time. It will not fully release all of the pressure in that amount of time, and that is why you need to turn the knob to release the remaining pressure. The amount still left in the pot will depend on how full, and how much liquid is in the pot. Reason being, that amount of liquid equals more steam. If you make something like boiled eggs, with only 1 cup of water in the bottom, the pressure will drop very quickly in comparison. Hope that helps!
Turned out really good. I used a ham bone, Hurst’s 15 bean soup dry beans (not soaked). Included the season packet from beans (because I know it’s good), garlic, salt & pepper instead of other spices. Also added 1 quart of home canned tomato juice similar to V8 along with the chicken broth. Cooked in IP for 40 min, NPR for 30. Turned out perfect!