Leftover Hambone Soup
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Use up your leftover hambone to make this cozy, hearty soup loaded with tons of veggies and chunks of sweet ham!
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Why You’ll Love This HamBone Soup Recipe
- Repurposes leftover holiday hambone
- Makes for an amazing, flavorful ham stock
- Warm, cozy, hearty, hug-in-a-bowl vibes
- Great clean-out-the-fridge meal, adding in leftover vegetables and extra herbs
Tips for the Best Leftover HamBone Soup
- Use a leftover ham bone from Christmas or Easter dinner. Simmering the hambone in a Dutch oven extracts collagen and creates a flavorful ham stock that makes this soup rich and hearty. It’s the secret to the best hambone soup recipe.
- Add pasta. Add ditalini, macaroni or a small shape pasta for a heartier soup.
- Add in leafy greens. This is a great recipe to sneak in leafy greens for those picky eaters. Spinach, kale, collard greens, swiss chard, or arugula are all great options.
- Serve with crusty bread. Serve with all the homemade crusty bread for dipping, sopping and dunking!
- Freeze as needed. Hambone soup is a great recipe to freeze, perfect for a quick, cozy weeknight meal in the coming weeks. Always use airtight, resealable freezer bags, label, date and freeze up to 3 months.
Best Sides to Serve with HamBone Soup
Tools For This Recipe
Dutch oven
Leftover Hambone Soup: Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, you can make ham soup without the bone. It won’t be quite as rich, but it will still be a great leftover ham soup using diced ham, beans and vegetables.
Absolutely! But because dried herbs are often more potent/concentrated than fresh herbs, you need less when using dry. The correct ratio is 1 tablespoon fresh herbs to 1 teaspoon dried herbs.
Absolutely! We have a recipe for that here.
Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for 3-4 days.
Yes! Leftover hambone soup can be kept in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Leftover Hambone Soup
Video
Ingredients
- 1 leftover hambone
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 onion, diced
- 2 carrots, peeled and diced
- 1 russet potato, peeled and diced
- 1 cup canned white kidney beans, drained and rinsed
- ¾ cup frozen corn kernels
- ¾ teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
- 2 bay leaves
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 1 ½ cups leftover diced ham
Equipment
Instructions
- Place leftover hambone in a large stockpot or Dutch oven and add enough water to cover the bone halfway, about 6-7 cups. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer until very fragrant, about 30 minutes to 1 hour; set aside ham stock and discard hambone.
- Heat olive oil in the large stockpot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add garlic, onion, carrots and potato. Cook, stirring occasionally, until onions have become translucent, about 2-3 minutes.
- Stir in ham stock, beans, corn, thyme and bay leaves; season with salt and pepper, to taste.
- Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer until potatoes are tender, about 10-12 minutes. Stir in ham until heated through, about 1-2 minutes.
- Serve immediately.
Did you make this recipe?
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Hi- love your recipes, and I’ve made this one several times. I’m
Wondering if I can use a frozen ham bone, or if I need to thaw it first?
Delicious broth! Make extra for other soups and when you need broth in a recipe. A tasty change from bean soup for leftover hambones. Definitely let it sit and gain flavor for a day and make a simple batter bread or biscuits the next day for when you serve it. Slurp!
I was look for something different and this made the mark. The only thing I added was celery salt. Thank you for sharing your recipe.
I hate pea soup and bean soup using ham bones so I was excited to find this recipe. This has just the right amount of beans and with all the other ingredients it had lots of flavor. I added a tad more ham but otherwise followed the recipe exactly. My hubby had 2 huge bowls so it’s a keeper for sure!
Unbelievably good. Didn’t have frozen corn used 1 creamed corn and a couple teaspoons of Tabasco! Yum!
I made this and it was sooo good. Earned every bit of the 4.9+ rating with over 170 reviews. I followed your proportions and added onion, carrots celery, and bay leaves during the stock-making step. I was worried that the stock would be too salty, because we know hams are different. I pressed all of the liquid out of the solids and discarded them with the bone. I split the stock into 2 jars and refrigerated so i could defat the stock. Then I prepped new veggies for the soup, customizing to meet our preferences. When they were ready for the stock addition in step 3, I added half off the stock
I skip the corn cuz it ruins thesoup. Out of white beans soused kidney beans. Added mushrooms, extra potatoes, hadful of fresh spinach. Very adaptable. Sprinkle w grated cheese when serving. Adore this recipe.
You can not spell, but can you cook?
Don’t be a d*ck, JW. Of course there are people who can cook but struggle with typing/grammer. Ridiculous. People used to cook intuitively, ya know.
I made this with some modifications. I used a ham shank for broth and meat plus navy beans that I cooked ahead. I didn’t exactly follow measurements used them more as a suggestion. It turned out delicious.
Really great and tasty recipe for ham leftovers, my family loved it!
Wow, this was so flavorful. I let the ham bone simmer for a few hours in a pot full of water because I needed a bigger batch. Made mostly as written but just with extra of everything (except ham, ran out) because large batch. The broth was so hammy it did not matter. I did add some celery and a bag of baby spinach. Guests said it was their favorite soup ever. I will definitely make this again. Thank you for the great recipe!
I thought this was a great, simple, easy soup. I will definitely make it again.
THIS RECIPE IS JUST WHAT I WANTED! I will make this ham bone soup after Thanksgiving and enjoy it during the cold winter! I already printed out a copy of the recipe. It sounds so good! All the ingredients I like! Thank You!
Really good way to use up a hambone. I threw in a stalk of celery with the onion for a classic soup start. Also shook in a little paprika and cayenne to round out the flavor. Lastly, next time I will just throw in the full can of white beans rather then save 1/2 cup. Nice flavor and not too overwhelmingly hammy or fatty. Nice big batch
Deeeelicious! Will definitely make again. 🙂
Love the recipe. What are the nutritional facts?
Best ham bone soup ever!
This really is the best leftover ham bone soup! I’ve been making it for a few years now, usually just once a year after Easter. But, if I happen to get my hands on a ham bone from friends or family, this is the only thing I make with it! It’s top notch, with staple ingredients & also nutritious 🙂
I wanted to make a faster version of ham and bean soup (using canned, not dried beans), so I tried this recipe and it was great. Did everything but the potato, which I didn’t have. The thyme and bay leaves added a lot! Thanks for a great recipe.
Wow – my picky family gobbled it up! Way better than the typical after Easter pea soup.
made this tonight using the left over ham and bone from easter … sooooo good. I did add extra potato and parsnip as well as red pepper flakes for a tiny amount of heat its unseasonable cold right now and this warm soup with bread for dinner tonight was perfect