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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This soup is just ridiculously good! We always make a ham at Thanksgiving and Christmas and we made two hams at Christmas this year so I’m making a double batch and my mouth is already watering!! So simple and so good!
This is an amazing soup, one of the best I’ve ever tasted. The broth is Smokey and absolutely delicious. I look forward to making a ham, just to get the bone for this!
Made this tonight with the left over ham and it was SO good! Thanks for the great recipe. The only thing I did different was a boiled the ham bone in my crockpot for 24 hours to get more of a bone broth.
I made the Leftover Hambone Soup today and it was great! I followed recipe other than added peas instead of corn. Was a delicious hot treat for a cold winter day. Definitely will make this soup again but will add more veggies.
I love this soup. Only substitutions were a can of corn and a can of great northern beans since it’s what I had in my pantry. There is so much flavor. I just sent this link to my mom.
This is my go to ham bone recipe every time. Love it. Thanks.
I made this last night with bone from honey baked copycat. It was soooo…. delicious, sweet and light, comforting . Thank you.
Made this last year with a Harry and David spiral ham and then again with vegetable broth and ham… so yummy. Making it again this year and got a H&D ham just for the soup! Best Damn Ham soup!
My first ham bone soup and it was simple and delicious! This is a keeper. Is it true that Honey Baked Ham sells ham bones? Thank you so much for the great recipe. After seeing a few of the modifications, kale would be a great addition.
Yes! I just bought a ham bone from the Honey Baked Ham store yesterday for $8. Great deal! Still had plenty of ham at the bottom and it was a perfect size for this recipe. Making leftover ham bone soup tonight!
EXCELLENT!!!!
Yes it is good, I made a few substitutions. I used diced tomatoes in lieu of carrots, and 1 can black beans and one can white kidney beans and skipped the corn (which I am sure would be good. I used 1 beer and chicken stock to the ham stock. Also I added crushed red pepper to my potato, garlic onion stir fry.
Great soup! Found last year for Xmas and was so looking forward to a thanksgiving ham so I could make it again. Easy to make and smells so good cooking on stove. Will be outdoors most of weekend and looking forward to warming up with this at end of day.
Just took this off the stove. I made the bone broth in the instant pot with garlic and bay leaves, then made the rest on the stove. I added some leftover glazed ham drippings too. I can’t even explain how good the broth is and how the ham flavor just permeates everything! So hearty and so good!! I also didn’t need all the broth, keeping some on the side to drink. Quite easy to make and reduces waste. Thanks for the recipe!
Just what we were looking for! Thank you for this perfect recipe! We added kale and instead of potatoes, served it over mini-bowtie pasta. Chef’s kiss!
Very tasty and satisfying! I’ve only made soup from a hambone a couple of times, and a long time ago, so this was surprisingly easy and fairly quick to come together. I used a full can of beans, and threw in some frozen chopped kale for color/extra veggies for the kids. Good recipe to have on hand.
Great recipe! Easy to make with simple ingredients!
This is an awesome soup and very easy to make. It’s a keeper!
Delicious! Used veg from the garden added a bit of cornstarch to thicken and it was like a meal in a bowl!
With all soup, I scrape as much ‘meat’ from bone that I will add to the soup last. I don’t like the taste of ‘boiled’ meat. I always cook my stock overnight in my crockpot. I add a half chopped onion, the celery leaves and bay leaves. I get up in morning and shut it off. Put in fridge when cool enough. Scrape the fat off, strain it, and continue with the rest.
This is a very versatile recipe. Thank you for inspiring my dinner menu. Cheers.
Thank you, Lana…I can’t believe you’re the first one to mention the FAT from boiling the ham bone!! I was beginning to think it must be part of the recipe, no one was mentioning it…even the original recipe!
Love this recipe! I always make enough so that I can freeze about 3/4 of the mixture. I am a senior!.
I love shiitake mushrooms which I add, thinly sliced. Believe it or not I add some FINLY sliced Kale! I guess for colour. Also when I freeze the leftovers I add some 1/2 cooked diced potatoes so they are perfect when I reheat.
Followed the recipe except used dried thyme instead of fresh. Delicious. Thanks!