It’s a wonderfully hearty, main course soup perfect for this time of year. It’s especially made easy in the crock-pot. It’s brimming with sweet potatoes, beans, and ham. So low in calories, fat and fiber rich. The broth has a natural sweetness due to the sweet potatoes and carrots. Each large, 2 cup serving has 276 calories and 1 gram of fat.
Ingredients
- 4 cups sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed (1½ pounds)
- 1 (15 oz) can cannellini (white kidney) beans, rinsed and drained
- 1 cup onions, chopped
- 1 cup carrots, chopped
- ¾ cup celery chopped
- ½ teaspoon dried thyme, crushed
- Black pepper, to taste
- 1 (32 ounce) carton reduced-sodium chicken broth
- 2 cups cooked ham, chopped (8 oz) I used Trader Joe’s uncured, no nitrates ham, see shopping tips
Instructions
- In a crock-pot, combine sweet potatoes, beans, onions, carrots, celery, dried thyme and pepper. Stir in broth. Cover and cook on low-heat setting for 5 to 6 hours or on high-heat setting for 3 to 3½ hours.
- Once done, remove 2 cups of soup. Be sure to include lots of the sweet potatoes. Add to blender and puree. Mix puree back into soup and mix in cooked ham. Heat on high-heat for 15 more minutes.
Notes
Makes 10 cups total, 5 main course servings. Each serving, 2 cups.
Shopping Tips
Trader Joe’s sells (8 oz) packages of Black Forest ham. It’s uncured and contains ‘no nitrates.’ In addition, most health food markets sell this type of ham. Or, use your favorite lean ham such as Oscar Meyer or even turkey ham. WW Freestyle SmartPoints 5-Blue
WW SmartPoints 8-Green
WW POINTS PLUS 6
Shopping Tips
Trader Joe’s sells (8 oz) packages of Black Forest ham. It’s uncured and contains ‘no nitrates.’ In addition, most health food markets sell this type of ham. Or, use your favorite lean ham such as Oscar Meyer or even turkey ham. WW Freestyle SmartPoints 5-Blue
WW SmartPoints 8-Green
WW POINTS PLUS 6
| SKINNY FACTS: for a 2 cup serving 276 calories, 1g fat, 0g sat. fat, 28g chol, 19g protein, 48g carbs, 10g fiber, 875mg sodium, 11g sugar |
| FACTS: for Freestyle SmartPoints 180 calories, 0g sat. fat, 14g protein, 6g sugar |
Skinny Facts
Serving: 2cupsCalories: 276kcalCarbohydrates: 48gProtein: 19gFat: 1gCholesterol: 28mgSodium: 875mgFiber: 10gSugar: 11gBlue Smart Points: 5Green Smart Points: 8Plus Points: 6
Question: Is it 2 cups of ham or 1 cup (8 ounces) of ham?
Linda it’s 2 cups of chopped ham. When I weighed the ham, each cup weighed 4 ounces.
I hope this helps.
My best,
Nancy
I was thinking of substituting the sweet potatoes with butternut squash. Do you think this would be a comparable exchange?
I think butternut squash will be a get substitute and comparable exchange for the sweet potatoes.
Enjoy!
My best,
Nancy
Nancy, I’m loving your recipes! They are always wonderful! I’m wondering why you don’t include the points value for PURPLE?
You are so sweet Ruth. Thanks so much! Unfortunately, at this point, I’ll only be including Blue and Green points. For all of these years, I’ve used a different program than WW to input all of my recipes to do the nutrition facts and points. I have hundreds of recipes and don’t have the time to input them into WW to make the calculations for the purple plan. Maybe in the future.
Wishing you all the best,
Nancy
Whether I’m on WW or not, I love soups. Recently i was running back and forth daily to the hospital, as someone close to me had major surgery. By the time I got home each night, I was exhausted and hungry and was so glad that I had a big batch of this soup waiting in the fridge. I said “it sustained me.” I’ve passed on the recipe (and your website) to several people, all of whom rave! Even bean haters like it. All I had at the time was butter beans (not even sure why I had canned butter beans) so that’s what I used (2 cans). And butter/lima bean haters LOVED it; I’ve made it several times now and always use the butter beans. This is probably my favorite soup EVER and that’s saying something from someone who is a major soup eater. Truly a case where the sum is much better than the parts.
OMG…This is such wonderful feedback Sharon. Thanks so much for taking the time to let me know! As you discovered, when a recipe calls for beans, most of the time you can use any kind of bean.
Thanks so much again and thanks for sharing my site and this recipe with your friends!
All the best,
Nancy