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
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This is delicious!!! Definitely a keeper.
Made this today with half a cup of rice instead of the beans and it was delicious! Thanks!!!
So delicious! I cooked the hambone in the crock pot using this recipe http://www.food.com/recipe/ham-broth-slow-cooker-508820 since it used similar ingredients as this recipe. I used 10 cups of the ham stock for the soup and also added leeks to the recipe. I didn’t have enough ham from the bone to fill up the soup so I bought a Farmer John ham steak and just cubed that up in to the pot. I also made gluten-free corn bread to go with it. Very good soup and very filling!
Very tasty recipe! Thank you. My husband doesn’t like peas, so I had to search for a recipe other then split pea to use with my Honeybaked Ham bone. He also likes thicker soups, so here is what I did: I used 2 potatoes, 4 carrots, one heaping cup of corn, and I added fresh parsley at the end. I didn’t salt it too much because of the ham and because I added oyster crackers before serving. The extra potatoes and the crackers increased the thickness without my having to emulsify the soup. Next time, I will add peas for the rest of my family. Since the ham was pricey, I felt like this recipe allowed me to get more of my money’s worth!
Had the ham bone from Christmas. Love your recipes. Followed almost exactly. I’ve never used a ham bone and didn’t know what to leave on it. Mostly “skinned” like your photo but in making the broth, I got nervous in the reduction amount. Added chocked stock. Anyway, I have 4 precise eaters(my husband and 3 girls). Two don’t like ham, two don’t like beans. I made this with some extra of the veggies (because I was wrong about the broth). All loved it. Melted to their knees good!!
Really excellent recipe! Looks like I’m with the group who had a leftover ham bone this holiday and googled up “Ham Bone Soup”. I’ve started to look around your site and see some other great looking recipes too – I suspect I’ll end up being a frequent re-creator of your concoctions! Great work!
Great recipe. I used sweet potatoes instead of carrots, dried herbs, and spiced it up a bit with my freshly ground hot peppers. No salt needed as the ham was salty enough. I think next time I will double the beans. Needless to say,DELICIOUS!..
Thanks for the great recipe and website. I will be coming back for more as I like what I have seen thus far. Keep the recipes coming
Made this with leftover ham from Christmas and it is amazing! It’s so simple but it’s great. I made the broth in a crock pot last night (ham bone with a little meat left, 7 cups of water, 2 bay leaves, 4 whole cloves of garlic, salt, pepper, and about 20 whole peppercorns, cooked on low for 7 hours… did not skim fat) and then made it today. So quick and simple! Only substitution was northern beans for kidney beans because I read the recipe wrong. This will be my go to recipe for day after Christmas from now on! Thanks for helping me start a new tradition.
This is SUPER tasty!! So glad I found your site! I have a few recipes bookmarked to try later!!
Happy New Year!
A friend gave me a half of ham with bone and i had to find something to do with it, I am trying your recipe mainly because i think your pretty and i have a ham bone, the recipe looks good and so do you, i am cooking it now smells so good thanks
So glad I found your recipe.Sounds great! Put the bone in the freezer Christmas night and so ready for this now. Happy New Year Everyone!
I LOVE your blog and your food. You can cook lady!! Your site is my go to site for anything Im looking for. I did this one tonight, from yesterdays Christmas ham and it may have been the best soup I have ever made//tried!! WOW
I made this soup today for supper using the ham bone left over from lunch. I didn’t have kidney beans. Instead, I used navy beans. The soup is fabulous. My seven-year-old daughter ate two bowls full. We’ll make this again. Thanks for sharing this recipe!
I just made soup over past couple of days using the ham bone left over from thanksgiving that had been sitting in a plastic bags the fridge Turned out beautifully & I used baby butter beans (10oz bag dried) instead & threw in some sweet potato (yam) too!
we had a bone in ham for thanksgiving and want to make soup the thing is we left the bone in a plastic bag in the fridge not the freezer can we still make the soup or is the bone no good
Larry, it really depends on your best judgment if this ham bone is still okay to use after all this time.
I look forward to trying this recipe! I’ve never made a ham and bean soup, but I love to eat it. I will be cooking this for a large crowd. To double or triple the recipe, do I use multiple ham bones or use the one bone, add more water, and simmer longer to make more broth base?
You can do either or – use more bones or simply add more water as needed. It’s up to you!
I make ham bone soup with white kidney beans, garlic, and chopped escarole. Of course , I also season with salt and pepper to taste. I add a hand full of small pasta shells and grated cheese during the last 10 minutes and let it sit for about 20 minutes before serving . I put a Crustini in the bottom of the soup bowl, add the soup and the final addition is a drizzle of olive oil (if desired) My family loves this soup.
Thank you for the delicious recipe. Google rocks! I didn’t read the “white” kidney beans, so I used the regular ones. I also had kale in the fridge so just pored the hot soup over it, and a perfect meal. Mahalo, as we say in Hawaii.
I use canned tomatoes and fresh onions then add macaroni. It turns out red and delish
Dear Chungah
Just made this ham bone soup for lunch and it is fantastic. I used fresh thyme, carrots and potatoes from our garden. The ham bone was cooked a little longer in a slow cooker and the sauteed vegetables and herbs were added to the pot for an hour. Perfect!
Thanks so much
Keith