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You are here: Home / Food / Recipes / *Gluten Free / Slow Cooker Ham And Beans Recipe (With No-Soak Option)

Slow Cooker Ham And Beans Recipe (With No-Soak Option)

Dry pinto beans and chunks of ham or ham hocks cook all day long with plenty of seasonings in your slow cooker for the perfect dinner. Perfect with homemade cornbread!

Dry pinto beans and chunks of ham or ham hocks cook all day long with plenty of seasonings in your slow cooker for the perfect dinner. Perfect with homemade cornbread!

[I]s there anything else better than a big bowl of comfort food? I think not. Pile up a giant bowl of creamy salty cumin filled bean goodness and slather some honey butter on homemade cornbread and I’m done for. Burp me and put me to bed please.

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Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for a fancy steak dinner, but lately I’m in an “all I want to do is curl up in bed and not move for 10 hours” kinda mood. Maybe it’s the weather, or maybe this is just the way my non-caffeinated self is going to have to exist for a while until it realizes I’m serious about this gig.

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Let’s talk dry beans shall we? Dry beans are awesome. And sometimes they can be finicky. As in the “rock hard I’m never going to be edible” kind of finicky. And I’ve spent years trying to figure out all their quirks.

Let’s talk about the things that you should never EVER do. You see dry beans have a lifelong feud going on with acids of all kinds. Think Elmer Fudd and Bugs Bunny kind of feud.

Elmer is basically any kind of tomatoes, vinegar, lemon, lime, orange (are you catching my citrus drift here?) oh and also molasses. Molasses is not an acid but it has a ton of calcium which apparently doesn’t jive with them either.

Imagine a tomato headed version of Elmer sentencing your bouncy little Bugs Bean to a slow and agonizing death by boiling for hours and hours. Not pretty.

Long story short, cook your dry beans alone first and then add all their acid loving and molassesy friends once they are good and soft.

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There is also the bidness of salt to consider. Whoa. You wanna talk about opening the throes of the internet….just start talking about whether salt toughens your beans or not. Word.

Turns out according to much smarter sources than I, that salt is actually not your enemy. However from years of training I still don’t salt mine until about 3/4 of the way through cooking. I think it results in a great bowl of beans if I do say so myself.

I’m a big advocate of simple recipes so I don’t use any fancy tricks BUT if you really struggle with tough beans here are a couple ideas.

1. Add a 1/4 tsp of baking soda before you start cooking them (I don’t because it makes them slightly less nutritious according to some sources)

2. Run your tap water through a water filter before you use it to soak and/or cook your beans

3. Buy new beans (beans older than 12 months will be tough almost always and may NEVER soften no matter how long they are cooked)

crockpot ham and beans recipe.jpg

I made this recipe in our amazing new Stove Top Safe Programmable Slow Cooker from Hamilton Beach. I’m so excited to tell you about it because I cannot even begin to express how much I adore this slow cooker. I get sent a lot of products because of our blog and many of them do not make the cut and get passed on. This one though? Oh my gosh.

I don’t mean to yell but it’s STOVE TOP SAFE!!!!!!! No more browning pans to wash!!

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Also? It’s NONSTICK! Goodbye hours of soaking out crusty inserts or buying those expensive slow cooker liners. I could seriously hug this thing. And in case you are wondering if I am qualified to make this recommendation I own THREE slow cookers. Yes I’m an addict. The other two are gathering dust in my conex box because this baby has taken over my kitchen.

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And even better….one of you gets to win one too and make some of these tasty beans.

Get entered here and add this to your Christmas “must have” list. It’s awesome. These beans are awesome. Win win.

Love this recipe? Follow us on Pinterest for even more healthy slow cooker recipes!

Slow Cooker Ham And Beans Recipe (No-Soak Option)
 
Print
Prep time
10 mins
Cook time
12 hours
Total time
12 hours 10 mins
 
Dry pinto beans and chunks of ham or ham hocks cook all day long with plenty of seasonings in your slow cooker for the perfect dinner. Perfect with homemade cornbread!
Author: Dani Meyer
Recipe type: Entree
Serves: 16 servings
Ingredients
  • 2 pounds dry pinto beans
  • 2 onions, diced (optional)
  • 1 cup chunks of ham or bacon or 1-2 ham hocks
  • 32 ounces chicken or vegetable stock
  • 64 ounces water
  • 1 tablespoon garlic powder
  • ½-1 tablespoon onion powder (if you add onions decrease to ½ tablespoon)
  • ½ tablespoon cumin
  • 1 teaspoon pepper
  • ½ teaspoon salt (adjust based on saltiness of ham/bacon)
  • ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
Instructions
  1. This recipe is extremely forgiving. Use what you have available! Canned beans can be substituted for dried and cooked on low for 2-3 hours for a similar result.
  2. Soaking option: soak beans overnight to shorten cooking time substantially.
  3. Add pinto beans, onions, ham/bacon/ham hocks, stock and water to slow cooker.
  4. Soaked: Cook on high for 5-6 hours.
  5. No-Soak: Cook on high for 10-12 hours. You may need to add additional liquid depending on your beans and the temperature of your slow cooker (they vary in intensity).
  6. I like to add my seasonings once the beans are noticeably soft but not completely broken down (about ¾ of the way through). If you are not going to be around you can add the seasonings at the start or at the end (read this great article on seasoning dry beans).
  7. Taste and adjust seasonings if needed before serving.
  8. Serve with homemade cornbread, honey and butter.
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Disclosure: I only work with brands I personally use and believe in. Your support of these brands helps us continue to provide you valuable free content. I was provided this slow cooker free of charge. I was not compensated further and all opinions are my own. Affiliate links generate a small revenue for us and keep your costs the same, thank you for supporting our work! 


9 Comments



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About Dani Meyer

Dani is a mama to 2 wild little boys. She lives for new adventures & loves to experience new places through her stomach. She is passionate about helping families fall in love with real food, geeking out on food photography and reading obsessively.

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Comments

  1. LoveCompassionateLee says

    January 29, 2015 at 8:45 PM

    This is the perfect recipe to enjoy during the current frigid weather.
    Happy Thursday 🙂

    Reply
  2. andree-anne @ singly scrumptious says

    November 4, 2014 at 4:34 AM

    I love pinto beans and this looks so comforting! thank you for sharing

    Reply
  3. Katherine A says

    November 2, 2014 at 5:09 AM

    my husband doesn’t like pinto beans-can I use Navy beans or butter beans instead.

    Thank you.

    K

    Reply
    • Dani Meyer says

      November 2, 2014 at 6:41 AM

      Hi Katherine,

      Definitely! I haven’t tested them so I’m not 100% sure timing will be the same so definitely cook them while you are around so you can monitor their progress. Do let us know how they come out!

      Dani

      Reply
  4. amber toliver says

    November 1, 2014 at 1:14 PM

    tried to enter contest and it says page no longer available, do you know whats happening? thanks for a delicious looking receipe!!

    Reply
    • Dani Meyer says

      November 1, 2014 at 1:22 PM

      Amber it seems to be loading fine everywhere for me. Try loading from our homepage and see if that does the trick? If not do let me know!

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. 34 Easy Slow Cooker Soup, Stews & Chilies - Virtually Yours says:
    September 5, 2015 at 10:29 AM

    […] Slow Cooker Ham and Beans Recipe (With No-Soak option) from The Adventure Bite […]

    Reply
  2. 27 Healthy Slow Cooker Recipes | The Adventure Bite says:
    July 28, 2015 at 2:41 PM

    […] Dry pinto beans and juicy ham hocks slow cook all day for the perfect easy dinner. Get the Full Recipe here. […]

    Reply
  3. Currently on a diet | hungry baby eat says:
    July 22, 2015 at 7:25 PM

    […] apart. YUM. CJ liked it upon first eating it but hasn’t shown interest since. I used this recipe, which gives you an option for not soaking the beans. Good for times when you simply did not […]

    Reply

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We help time crunched foodies create flavor packed simple recipes (and cocktails!) made with real ingredients! Our food travels keep our recipes fresh and inspired, while introducing you to unique "must visit" foodie destinations.

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