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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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…
This soup is absolutely delicious, any time I buy a spiral ham I make this soup. I add peas and some fresh dill & parsley to it as well.
Soup is very tasty with a flavorful broth. Would make again.
Worked great and family loved it! Added celery along with carrots and potatoes. Will use this again!
Can I freeze this soup? I made too much (doubled the recipe expecting a crowd…)
Delicious recipe and I’ll make it again. I followed the recipe but had to make two substitutions based on what I had in the pantry. Instead of russet potatoes, I used two parsnips, hubby loves them. I didn’t have corn, but added a can of diced tomatoes with green chilies. I add that frequently to soups because I like the depth of flavor it gives due to the mild green chilies. Everything else stayed the same and the soup was delicious for several meals for the two of us.
This soup was absolutely excellent! Easy to make, VERY quick and mighty tasty! Leftovers seemed even better. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Excellent Soup!! My family is not a big fan of soups but they loved this one! I increased the ham to 2 cups because my family are meat lovers. I don’t like thyme so I omitted it.
Easy to follow. First time, will do again. I even canned some different beans earlier All met and we enjoyed. This tastes Great much better then store soups. Will look forward to other ideas.
Amazing! I cooked my hambone in 5-1/2 cups of chicken broth and 1-1/2 cups of water.
My husband loves ham. He is always buying one. I made this soup and he was hesitant to try as he only likes chicken soup. I just made it with a xmas ham that was a gift and he was sick with the flu. I made him a bowl, he went crazy for it. This broth is so rich and flavorful….One of my winter mainstays…..thank you for the recioe.
Just wanted to drop by and say that we make this EVERY year with our leftover Christmas ham bone. I don’t change a thing when I make it: it’s perfect! Thank you for getting us started with ham bones 5 years ago!