Leftover Hambone Soup
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You can use up your leftover hambone to make this cozy, hearty soup loaded with tons of veggies and chunks of sweet ham!
For those of you who made a ham for Christmas yesterday, I highly suggest saving the bone so you can make this ultimate hambone soup.
I first made this soup two years ago and I was so amazed as to how you could actually use the hambone. In the previous years, I would toss them in the trash but the leftover hambone is actually quite a gold mine.
With a simple homemade ham stock, you could create such a cozy, hearty soup with ingredients you already have on hand.
Once you let the flavors meld together, this soup is wonderfully sweet and comforting with chunks of ham in every bite!
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
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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Loved it. Made a couple of changes – used acorn squash instead of potatoes, used garbanzos (chick peas) instead of kidney beans and added leftover green beans (w/ bacon).
Hi Chungha , Your soup looks very good. I always make soup from ham bones and will be making it from my turkey carcass again to. I love making soups, I find it very relaxing and satisfying. I make Potatoes, Clam Chowder, Veg Beef, Beef n’ barley, Italian sausage, kale and white bean, lemon rice, wonton soup, ….love making soup….so healthy and cleans out the fridge to..lol. Happy New Year everyone.
Would this taste OK using the hambone from a honeybaked ham?
Yes, absolutely!
That is a fantastic way to use leftover ham. Nice work (:
Looks so yummy and healthy. Thanks for sharing. Happy New Year!
This soup looks so good. I just made some stock from my ham bone and I’m going to make the soup tomorrow. What do you think about substituting butternut squash for the potato? Would it completely change the taste?
Not at all!
I made this last night and it was very good. First of all, to answer Gina’s question, you can use a pressure cooker. I used a 6 quart pressure cooker and a large very meaty ham bone. I added water to cover the bone and cooked it for an hour. I opened it up and added the veggies and then cooked for 45 more minutes. I used two cans of Great Northern white beans in lieu of a potato. I left out the corn. I did not add any additional ham since mine had so much meat on it which just fell off the bone. I used a gravy separator to reduce the amount of fat in the broth. The outcome was all that I hoped for. Served it with home made corn bread and it made for a great dinner! I recommend this recipe with or without the minor variations mentioned.
Do I use all the water I cooked the hambone in as the stock?
Yes, absolutely.
The first time I made this, I forgot the corn. It was so incredibly good that I haven’t had the heart to add the corn on the 2 more times I’ve made it since then. My children are bean haters so they of course were not fans but picky-ness is frowned upon in our home so they ate it anyway(someday their taste buds will grow up and they’ll thank me for all the times I made them “enjoy” beans). But my mama, with a palate so picky it makes me cuh-RAZY!! absolutely LOVES this and so do my husband & I!
PS- I found out my daughter had ham on her menu and I begged her for the bone JUST so I could make this soup again. Shameless I know but it’s that good!
Hello! Excited and anxious to try your recipe! Quick question, my ham stock ended up not yielding what I think will be enough liquid when I boiled it last night. As I am throwing it together today, can you recommend what I should add if I need to increase the liquid? Thank you for your help!
You can add more water as needed.
We made this last week and served with buttermilk biscuits and it was so so so good. My husband had three bowls! It was amazing! Curious if it would be as good as a creamy soup? Have you tried?
Hey Lindsey – are you maybe referring to a different recipe than this one here?
The only thing I would add to the instructions is to chill the broth and skim the fat. We had SO much fat in our ham and I’m glad we didn’t end up eating it. Make it a longer process, but worth it I think.
This was AMAZING!!!! I made corn bread muffins and crumbled one up in the soup and it was REDICULOUSLY delicious!!!!
Thanks everyone. Gonna try but I’m gonna add a bit of sauerkraut as well typo earlier
Great recipe! Tweaked what I had to because of what was available in my pantry but will definitely make this my go to over split pea soup
I have frozen butter-beans and corn from the garden (blanched), what are your thoughts on that substitution? Anyone used butterbeans or lima beans in it??
That sounds like a great idea! Yum!
Made this with black beans instead of white beans because that’s what we had in the pantry. Served it with corn bread and it was delicious! Great recipe, very easy.
How much stock do you put in? My family and I are a fan of every recipe we’ve tried from you, can’t wait for this!
Alissa, you want to add enough water to cover the bone halfway, about 6-7 cups.
Thank you for this recipe. I made it today with our Christmas ham and it was so, so good! easy, too!
How many servings does it make?
The amount of servings is listed in the recipe.