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 absolutely make ham soup without the hambone. It won’t be quite as rich, but it will still be a great way to use up leftover ham!
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.
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Thank you for this wonderful recipe! I’ve made it many, many times. I always choose to serve ham at the holidays so I will have a leftover ham bone to make this soup 🙂
Could the ham stock be made in an Instant Pot before proceeding with the rest of the recipe? If so, how long would you recommend at high pressure?
What a great idea! But unfortunately, without having tried this myself, I cannot answer with certainty. As always, please use your best judgment when making substitutions and modifications.
Love it, I did the ham bone with some dried beans in the instant pot for an hour then made the soup in a regular pot, also added leftover peas from our ham dinner, delicious!
GLAD TO SEE THIS RECIPE BECAUSE I ALWAYS MAKE PEA SHOP AND WILL TRY THIS NEW WAY I WILL LET YOU HOW IT COME OUT.
This soup was sooo good and a nice change for leftover ham. Everyone loved it!
Delicious
This is the best. I didn’t have a potato so I cut up Mrs. Bs Frozen biscuits after thawing. So great, gotta go get another bowl. oxo
This is the second time my hubby has made this because we got some half hams for $9 each. Every time we made a half ham, we have plenty of ham left over to make hambone soup AND package some up for sandwiches for hubby’s work lunch’s. (Just hubby, toddler and I so plenty of leftovers!). This recipe is so delicious! We use canned or frozen carrots and corn. We’ve had it with white kidney beans & red kidney beans, both ways were delicious! Also we add more garlic and onion to ours.
YUM!
Making the hambine soup per the recipe and then the ham vegetable soup was fantastic!! Just made it this evening 11/9/2018 and it was perfect…and the house smells amazing!
I just made this and it is YUMMY!
I look for recipes on occasion but have never bookmarked a particular site. After browsing through yours, I bookmarked it and plan on using a ton of your recipes! Just wanted to say THANK YOU, Chungah! You’re helping many of us cooking-challenged peeps to impress our loved ones with simple, easy to use recipes that taste delicious! Your site name is well deserved!
This soup is amazing! I’ve been making it for 2 years after every thanksgiving and Christmas ham we have from the honey baked ham. HBH also sells ham bones year round so it makes it easy to make this soup without having first eating a whole ham!
Soup was very tasty. Need to watch salt content as stock can be very salty depending on your of ham. I put in a couple of sacrificial potatoes to absorb the excessive salt.
You can always use low sodium broth to help keep it down. Thanks for your feedback!
This looks great but cooking for two leaves leftovers. Can you freeze this without it going into mush?
Freezing sounds like an amazing idea but unfortunately, I cannot answer this with certainty as I have never tried freezing this myself. Please use your best judgment for freezing and reheating.
Any idea how to fix overly sweet soup? I used a honey baked ham bone and although the hubs enjoyed dinner immensely, it’s a bit sweet for me
I know exactly what you mean, Jette! It really depends on the type of ham you use so a honey baked ham would definitely yield a more sweet taste than a standard ham without that much sweet seasonings on it, if that makes sense! 🙂
Put in a couple splashes of garlic vinegar to reduce the sweetness, and it also brings out the flavors.
I substituted great northern beans for the kidney beans and added a cup of frozen peas,…so delicious!
Awesome, great substitutions.
Great recipe! My whole family loved it, including my 2 picky toddlers Thanks for sharing!
You’re so welcome! Thanks Amanda.
Love the soup idea as I have TOO MUCH leftover ham.
I cook for a group that has certain dietary restrictions. One person has a carrot allergy; another can’t do corn.
Any suggestions for substitutes? I was thinking either sweet potato/butternut squash and green beans.
That sounds amazing!
Can this be made in a crock pot/slow cooker? I’d prefer a one-stop shop.
Unfortunately, without further recipe testing, I cannot answer with certainty. As always, please use your best judgment regarding substitutions and modifications.
Hi! Do you think this could go in the crockpot?
Yes, of course.
I loves this ham bone soup and added more veggies and just a few potatoes. Down side-both my husband and I were EXTREMELY hungry two hours later! Never felt that way before and was surprised he felt the same way.
Does the ham bone have to come from a baked Ham? I have a ham that isn’t cooked yet and I was just going to cut off slices of it for lunch meat and was going to use the leftover and the bone for soup. I was wondering if it would be more flavorful after baking or if it would be the same just throwing it into the water as it is? Any ideas? Thank you.
A baked ham would be ideal but I haven’t tried this with an uncooked ham bone so I can’t say with certainty – sorry!