Whenever I make a ham for Thanksgiving or Christmas, I never know what to do with the leftover bone. My friend Prestyn once mentioned that it was great for stews but I never really thought to look for hambone stew recipes. I guess I thought they didn’t really exist, that is until I came across this amazing recipe on Never Enough Thyme. It’s an easy, simple recipe that allows you to be very creative. You can add in whatever you’d like best and it’ll turn out to be the best soup of your life.

That may be a bit dramatic but you get what I’m trying to say. It’s a very tasty soup.

Moving on.

You begin to make the soup by making a ham stock, in which the leftover hambone is simmered in boiling water for about 2 hours, filling the house with an amazing smell. Then the bone is removed from the soup and the leftover meat on the bone is thrown back into the pot. Then the good stuff gets added in there: onions, celery, tomatoes, kidney beans, potatoes, and corn. Feel free to add in some other things of your choice. Have fun with it! Then the whole shebang is simmered for another hour, letting all the flavors meld together.

Is it as delicious as it sounds? Absolutely.

Don’t you want to make a ham now just for the leftover soup?

Leftover Hambone Soup (adapted from Never Enough Thyme):

Yields 10-12 servings

• 1 leftover hambone
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2 stalks celery, chopped
• 1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes
• 1 (15-ounce) can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• 2 russet potatoes, diced
• 1 (16-ounce) package frozen corn, thawed
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

(As you can see from this leftover bone, there’s a lot of meat on this!)

Place the leftover hambone in a large Dutch oven and add enough water to cover the bone halfway.

Bring it to a boil; reduce heat to low and let simmer, covered, until very fragrant, about 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Remove the bone from the stock.

Add the onion, celery, tomatoes, kidney beans, potatoes and corn; season with salt and pepper, to taste.

When the bone is cool to handle, remove the leftover meat from the bone and return to the pot.

(Yes, I got every piece of meat off the bone. It was just too precious to waste!)

Let simmer, covered, until the vegetables are tender, about 1 hour.

Serve immediately.

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