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.
Did you make this recipe?
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made this tonight using the left over ham and bone from easter … sooooo good. I did add extra potato and parsnip as well as red pepper flakes for a tiny amount of heat its unseasonable cold right now and this warm soup with bread for dinner tonight was perfect
This truly is delicious soup. I had boiled my ham when I cooked it and I used that water to make the stock. I put the ham bone in that water with carrots and tomatoes and celery and garlic to make the stock. When I made the soup, I also added a quart of tomatoes I had preserved.I had a lotof stock so I used more potatoes and carrots than called for. I found the beans were too soft, but I also cooked the soup all day. It had much more flavor after I cooked it all day, then after I had cooked at the time required. Very good.
Sounds good, but you didn’t use much of the original recipe. If you cook it all day, just wait for the last 30 minutes to add the beans!
Loved this, was so simple. I made it for lunch.
Added lentils instead of beans, canned corn instead of frozen. It was lovely, family asked me to write it down and save it for another time.
I searched for this recipe my dear. So delicious and heart healthy with the veggies. Delicious
Delicious soup! I added a bag of fresh spinach and some celery. Also threw in a teaspoon of herbs de provence. It’s in the fridge for tomorrow night when I will add some pasta.
I have made this every 2 to 3 months and love it just as it is. Thank you. It is a favorite for sure!
I made this tonight for something different than my usual cream based or Hurst beans pkg mix recipes for the leftover ham bone. I added 2 ribs of diced celery, simply because I had them available. And I added 3 sprigs of thyme to the ham bone stock instead of adding the thyme leaves later, because I wanted to save time. All in all the result was exemplary. I really enjoyed this recipe.
I have DARK RED Kidney Beans…what are your thoughts on replacing them for the WHITE???
(I don’t want to ruin the soup!)
This soup was excellent! I did cook the bone for about 6 hours though. Hubby even had seconds, which means this soup was a big win! I will be making this with my ham bones from now on. Thank you!
I love many of your recipes and they are always winners as is this one. My comment is that if you cook the ham bone longer( 6-8 hours) and make a stock of sorts. Then all the rest of the meat falls off the bone and it’s super flavorful so essentially you just add the veggies with a final seasoning check. I have dogs so they get the bones!
Thanks for your wonderful recipes.
I just want to know What to do with one ham hock. The pot was too small for three ham hocks and I already made the beans They were great!
Delicious! Made just a couple of changes. Added an extra potato instead of beans (preference) and because my ham had a sweet glaze I added a tablespoon of vinegar to counteract the sweetness. This recipe is a great base. I can imagine lots of variations.
Very delicious and easy to make. Used a bag of mixed vegetables since I didn’t have any corn. Also added celery.
So quick, easy, and delicious – a family favorite for us year round 🙂
Very tasty…I would love to add tomatoes and a noodle of some sort…is this possible ?
Looks delicious. Can you use ham hocks?
Came out great. Added celery and cabbage, and a bit of chicken bullion. and made a double batch. Great recipe, thank you!
My favorite part of thanksgiving. I make this every year. So delicious and easy!
Fantastic recipe! Just made a double batch for my mother-in-law and the residents at her memory care facility. It was a hit!
We were looking for a way to use the hambone from our Thanksgiving meal and found this recipe. It was easy and delicious. The cook times were accurate, and prep was minimal. It was so yummy that now I am trying to think of reasons to buy a spiral ham so we can make this soup again!
Hi,
This soup was absolutely excellent! Easy to make, VERY quick and mighty tasty! Leftovers seemed even better.
Thanks…