Leftover Hambone Soup
by Chungah
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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!
Featured Comment
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
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.
Equipment
Did you make this recipe?
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I used left over mashed potatoes.
We have soup once a week and my husband said this is top 5! Pleasant surprise !
This was SO good- thanks for the recipe! I found the broth a bit bland at the end, so I added some chicken Better Than Boullion and that zipped it up.
what temperature you put it on for severl hours? 325???
Natacha, this was set on the stovetop so there is no set temperature.
@chungah how do you prepare your whole ham the day before? I’d love to see the recipe.. Unless it’s already here somewhere and I’m just missing it lol
Jill, here is my recipe using a slow cooker.
Thanks for this – great recipe!!
U followed recipe
I changed to white navy beans
Added cabbage maybe 1/3 head
And a pinch of crushed red pepper
Turned out awesome
Very good. Omitted the beans. My husband said he wasn’t sure about eating it. He loved it and ate it for 4 days. Will make again. Thank you!
My son found this recipe while wandering around the web. He doesn’t like beans so we used the farro we had on hand. It was amazing! The only thing I would say is you need to add more liquid if you use a grain as they suck up a lot of juice.
wow this was great made it twice! I made a few addition by adding three tbls of unsalted butter and added a can of diced tomato and two tbls of sour cream. I used frozen green beans in place of the corn. So good! Will be trying more recipes froM YOU!
I found this labeled 27 crockpot recipes #16.. If I want to make it in the crock how long and do I use low or high?
Also do the potatoes dissolve if the are on a long time.
I do use a ham bone for Canadian Style pea soup (Yellow Split peas) but haven’t experimented with potatoes!
Unfortunately, it is very difficult to give exact conversion information to translate a traditional stovetop recipe to be used in a slow cooker without further recipe testing. However, here is an article worth checking out on a possible conversion guide: http://www.thekitchn.com/5-tips-for-converting-recipes-to-the-slow-cooker-189343.
Looked up on net for recipe and found this. Sounds great and will be back for more. Thank you ! Den
Great recipe, I made this for the hubs as I don’t eat ham. The broth looked a little thin so I made a quick rue with a bit of paprika added to it. I added some celery tops to my broth and put some chopped celery ribs into the soup. I’ll definitely keep this recipe for ham bones down the road.
Making it today can’t wait though I did already simmer my ham bone and cooled it overnight in frig
This was better then I expected. Will make again. I added a bag of raw pea pods along with the corn.
Fantastic. Just made it. Tweaked a bit by adding coconut milk, dumplings and local herb pepper. Also substituted chive for onion. Best soup I ever made. Thanks!
Thank you for this fabulous recipe!!!! Great soup for cold winter nights and family game night. I added fire roasted tomatoes for some extra kick.
Thanks again
Thanks for the recipe! I was looking to use a hambone for something for the first time and this was perfect. I’ll admit, I tweaked it a bit to accomodate my own tastes and preferences, but it worked perfectly and I was very pleasantly surprised with how it turned out. Its always a huge plus when its received well by my troops too…a 12 year old son, a 6 year old son, and a meat-and-potato loving husband. We all enjoyed your soup tonite, on this snowy and cold nite in the Philly area!
Thank you for sharing this recipe! It worked great for leftover ham and my husband really enjoyed it! I substituted cooked parsnips for the beans and served it topped with cheddar cheese. I liked the suggestion of serving with cornbread, so I served it with corn pudding and biscuits.
Great recipe, very tasty!
Only tweak I made was to add a dash of red pepper and a bit of smoked paprika to bring out the natural ham flavor. I also did increase the beans to a full can and increased the ham as others suggested.
Will make it again for sure.