Leftover Hambone Soup
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Make this leftover hambone soup with hearty vegetables, tender chunks of ham, and a rich ham bone broth. This ham bone soup recipe is cozy, filling, and the best way to use up a leftover ham bone from the holidays.
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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.
Ham Bone vs No HamBone
You can make ham soup with or without the ham bone. Cooking with the bone gives the broth deep flavor and richness. If you don’t have one, use diced ham with chicken or vegetable stock to make a quick ham soup recipe.
Best Sides to Serve with HamBone Soup
Tools For This Recipe
Dutch oven – the best tool for simmering hambone soup slowly and evenly. It helps release all the flavor from the ham bone into a rich ham stock. Also great for making other holiday ham leftover recipes.
Dutch oven
Leftover Hambone Soup: Frequently Asked Questions
How do you make ham bone soup from scratch? Start with a leftover hambone, simmer for broth, then add vegetables, beans, and diced ham.
Yes, you can make ham soup without the bone. It won’t be quite as rich, but it’s still a great leftover ham soup recipe 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.
Yes, hambone soup can be made in the Instant Pot. Use your leftover ham bone, vegetables, beans, and stock. Pressure cook on high for 25 minutes, quick release, and stir in diced ham at the end.
Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for 3-4 days.
Yes! You can freeze the leftovers in individual freezer bags, thaw overnight, and reheat on the stovetop.
The best bone for ham soup is a leftover holiday ham bone with some meat attached. It adds flavor and richness to the broth.
Yes, hambone soup freezes well for up to 3 months. Store in freezer-safe bags, thaw overnight, and reheat on the stove.
To thicken ham bone soup, simmer uncovered until it reduces, or stir in cooked pasta, potatoes, or beans.
Hambone soup will keep in the fridge for 3-4 days in an airtight container. For longer storage, freeze in portions for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge and reheat on the stove until hot.
Leftover Hambone Soup
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.
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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