Collard Green Soup with Ham and Beans

This post is sponsored by my friends at Zoup! Good, Really Good® Broth, but the opinions expressed here are all my own- just as always. Thanks for supporting the brands that support my family and me. I just love a big comforting bowl of soup. I’m not sure what it is about it, but sometimes nothing warms your soul and fills your belly quite like it. 

But when most people think soup, they think of a big pot that’s been simmering all day. Believe it or not, soup doesn’t have to be an hours-long affair.

Nope! Soup, when done right, can have tons of great flavor in less than an hour! Seriously! Which makes it a great option when you’re looking for a quick and easy weeknight meal.

The trick is to start with the best, most flavorful ingredients. 

That’s one of the reasons I love using Zoup! Good, Really Good® Broth in my soups.

From the minute you crack open the seal on the recyclable glass jar, the smell tells you this isn’t any ordinary broth. It’s kettle cooked in small batches using the finest ingredients. The flavor is complex, but balanced and seriously tastes like homemade. It’s also low in calories, paleo-friendly, and completely free of artificial ingredients, preservatives, hormones, gluten, GMO’s, fat, trans fat and saturated fat.

It’s the perfect base for my Collard Green Soup with Ham and Beans.

This recipe is a whole lot of Southern in one bowl, folks. Zoup!’s Chicken Bone Broth is combined with onions, garlic, diced ham, collard greens, tomatoes and navy beans for a lip-smackingly delicious, hearty dish that’s seriously ready in about 30 minutes. 

Let’s break this down a bit…

We covered the broth. It’s amazing. It was actually created by a 20+ year soup industry veteran and the folks behind the popular Zoup! eatery, so you know it’s good. Visit ZoupBroth.com to learn more and follow @ZoupGoodReallyGood on Facebook and Instagram and @ZoupGoodReallyGoodBroth on Pinterest.

To make this soup quick and easy, I opted to use frozen chopped collards from your grocer’s freezer section. That said, you could use about 2 pounds of fresh washed and chopped collard greens. You’d just want to allow those to cook pretty much completely before you added in the tomatoes and beans – which will take a bit longer than the frozen variety. You could also use other greens like kale or turnip.

Another important flavor component here is smoked ham. I like to grab those packages of chopped ham right in the meat case of the grocery store to make this even easier. That said, 3 cups of any diced leftover ham work, too. You’ll just probably want something a little more hefty than the thinly sliced deli sandwich style ham. 

For the beans, I went with the mild flavored navy bean, but you could use pretty much any canned bean – cannellini, great northern, even black eyed peas would work. 

And as much as I know y’all hate the vagueness of the phrase “add salt and pepper to taste,” it’s really important here. The level of salt in the other ingredients will vary – especially in the ham – so the amount of salt you’ll need to make the soup taste right will vary from batch to batch. Add a sprinkle and taste it. If it needs more, add another sprinkle. Just remember you can always add more, but it’s pretty hard to take it away.

Serve this soup up with some piping hot cornbread and you’ve got an easy meal that’s perfect for those chilly weeknights – or any night for that matter! Y’all enjoy!

Zoup! broth is available for purchase at retailers across the country and online at ZoupBroth.com and Amazon.com. Right now, you can use code “128Zoup20” to get 20% off your ZOUP! order on Amazon. (Limited to one code use per customer.)