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!
Featured Comment
reasons to make hambone soup
- 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 and tricks for success
- Use a hambone. Not only can you repurpose a leftover hambone, but the hambone will add such luscious flavor, richness and body to the soup.
- 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.
what to serve with hambone soup
Tools For This Recipe
Dutch oven
Leftover Hambone Soup: Frequently Asked Questions
This can certainly be made without the hambone. It may not have the exact same flavors or richness than using the bone, but it will still be a great way to use up all that leftover holiday 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.
Yes! This is a great IP version for an even quicker time stamp.
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.
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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What a brilliant idea to use the leftover ham bones! Love this kind of simple but hearty soups. Thanks for sharing!
The leftovers and the bone are the best part! I love this soup, even though its like a billion degrees in LA today (ummmm, 82 mother effing degrees on Dec. 27th), I still want some of this soup.
Jackie, I’d like to say I feel bad for your weather related woes but…. It’s -17 without the wind chill right now in NY. So I’ll trade with you! I’m pulling everything I can find from my pantry that can go in this soup (I have a ham bone but no carrots and no beans) because this sounds great and I’m not leaving the house.
can I cook this in a crock pot and how long
Kathleen, I have never made this in a slow cooker so unfortunately, I’m not entirely sure if this can be made in the crockpot.
I actually made it in the crock pot. I just let the hambone in the crock pot with water overnight and then found this recipe the next day and moved forward, just adding it all to the crock pot. It worked wonderful!
How much water did you use? What temp setting also?
You can, but its a little tedious. You’ll need to leave the hambone in the crockpot for 6-12 hours, on high for the first half, then low for probably about the second half. The crockpot will probably have to be totally full of water to cover the bone sufficiently. You will need to remove some of the broth after, to make room for the other ingredients, but it can be saved in the fridge or freezer for later, to make rice or cook other things in for extra flavor.
After you remove the bone and pick the meat off, you can add the other ingredients to the crock pot. The soup will take 3-4 hours on high OR 6ish hours on low….you can add the carrots/garlic/onions/potatoes, and probably the beans (after soaking). I wouldnt add the ham and corn until maybe 30 minutes before serving.
Do I cover the pot while letting the ham bone simmer?
You can leave it uncovered.
I like to cover it but it’s a matter of preference really. I also freeze it in zip locks laid flat then you can easily stack them in the fridge. It can easily last months.
sounds like a really yummy soup!
LOVE using the leftover hambone for soups! Looks incredible Chung-Ah!
Soups are the best way to use that leftover ham bone!
I added the drippings from the cooking of the ham to the stock. I let them cool in the fridge overnight and pulled off the fat that rose to the top. mmm.. tasty recipe.
Just found your blog by searching for what to do with the amazing ham bone i have!
Love your blog, btw…..
Off to make this……it looks so dang good!!
that’s how I found it too. I know my mom never wasted a ham bone and I had no idea what to do to make soup with it but this was awesome!!
Love this recipe! I’m not usually a big fan of ham, but this recipe has so many vegetables with the ham and looks so hearty. It sounds delicious to me! Thanks for sharing such a great idea on using that leftover ham bone and ham!
There was a time when I would read a recipe like this and be frustrated that I did not have a ham bone but then one day a couple of years ago I had an epiphany. Honey Baked Ham sells sandwiches; wonder what they do with those ham bones?
A quick phone call and I discovered that they do indeed sell those bones; loaded with meat too. Which means that despite not having ham yesterday I can still make this soup today! YES!!
I can’t believe they sell the bones! I’m so glad you told me because I honestly can’t wait to just make this soup once a year during this time of year!
Thank you for the nice soup recipe.
Love what a hambone does to soup. Can’t beat that salty smokiness! Looks so good!
Does this soup have diced tomato? You mention it in a reply
This recipe is an updated recipe from the archives. I have tweaked the recipe a bit and have omitted the diced tomatoes this time around. But you can by all means add 1 can of diced tomatoes to the soup when adding the diced ham.
This looks delicious and hearty. I don’t have a leftover ham bone, but makes me want to go out and get a ham just to make this 🙂
How can I adjust this to make it a white based soup as opposed to a red?
You can omit the can of diced tomatoes and use cannellini beans instead of kidney. However, it will not be a complete white soup unless milk or cream is added, which may completely change the taste of this soup.
I do not see diced tomatoes listed in the ingredients…sounds good though
made me do a double take, cause I didn’t either and it said white beans anyway, not red. I made this soup the day after Christmas with my leftover ham bone and I’m making it again today since I’m already craving it again. The first time I made it I didn’t have any beans but it was delicious without it. I am using light red kidney beans this time. I think it will be yummy!
This looks delicious! In the picture, it looks like you have angel hair or spaghetti noodles – when do you add those?
I think you might be referring to the corn. I actually didn’t add any angel hair or spaghetti noodles to this soup but feel free to add them to taste!
Can I use barley in place of the kidney beans?
You can most certainly use barley but I can’t predict how this will change in texture/taste.
I don’t care for kidney beans – what else would you suggest instead?
Thanks
Feel free to omit the beans. There’s a ton of other goodies in this soup. Although I should tell you that I don’t really care for kidney beans either but loved it in this soup!
Simple, healthy & yum – my favorite combo! I omitted the beans (didn’t have them in stock) and just added a little extra potato, carrot & celery. We had extra ham slices as well so I cut and added more ham. Family of four said it was delicious. Served with corn bread muffins and my 6 & 9 year olds devoured it. Plenty for another few lunches (in the fridge) and another entire meal (freezer). Thanks for sharing. This will be a post holiday /midwest winter staple indeed!
One more thing…I sautéed the chopped onions, carrots and celery in olive oil and garlic (about 6 garlic pieces) before adding to ham bone stock.
You can use barley, or lentils
You show carrots but do not have them on the list of needed ingredients.
thanks
Thanks for letting me know. Fixed!
Turned out great, but much more than I can use in the next couple of days. Any idea how long it will keep in the fridge or if I can freeze it (and any tips if so)?
thanks.
It’ll probably keep in the fridge for a couple of days. You can most definitely freeze the leftovers in individual servings. Just be sure to thaw in the fridge overnight.
Thank you.
My husband makes a ham and bean soup with the ham bone! We will keep it up to four or five days in the fridge. We also freeze some, usually in half pint or pint mason jars. It will keep great for six months or longer! And it’s delicious reheated.
By the way, places like Honeybaked Ham will sell you ham bones when they have them; they’re $5 to $7 in our area. And there’s a good bit of meat on them, for a tasty, hearty soup!
I get a whole joint for that
Hi. I’m trying to get away from freezing every thing and trying to can things. How did you do the soup in the Mason jars.
Did you use a pressure canner or just the ordinary way with boiling water.
Thanks. Ian from canada
I love using olive oil, but had some left over bacon fat from this morning, used it instead – awesome! A wonderful hearty meal! Thanks!
I didn’t have any potatoes in the house, so I substituted it with jasmine rice.
Recipes are pretty much the only comment section I will dare to read anymore. There’s usually some great ideas that are very handy and helpful in addition to the featured recipe. This is one of those tips!! Several others sound good too, but I will enjoy trying it with jasmine, basmati, or some kind of wild rice possibly next time. And there will be a next time I can already guarantee from the smells coming from the stove top now! Thanks to the author and all the commenters!! 😀
it says 2 carrots peeled and diced read it again
The author said that it was corrected…the original excluded the carrots…read the whole thread again.
2 carrots peeled and diced – 5th ingredient
I just want to add I smoked a ham for Easter and followed this recipe and turned out wonderful as well
I made it with potatoes and barley. Loved it!
If I want to double the recipe, can I double the water in the stock base and still have a flavorful base?
Yes, of course.