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.
Video
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Love this soup but the recipe is now missing from this page! Can you please repost it? Thank you!
It is back up! Thanks!
I did add celery with the onions and garlic …smells so good..came out very yummy for the tummy..
Great! I subbed a sweet potato for the russet and added some kale at the very end. Thumbs up!
Followed the recipe exactly tonight and it was delicious! Added to my Fave Soups recipes box – can’t wait to make it again. Highly recommended!
I made this in the slow cooker with lots of root vegetables (and added rice). It was amazing. I started the bone, water, root veggies in the slow cooker for 4 hours, then removed the bone took ham from the bone and cubed back into the slow cooker, added kidney beans and some leftover cooked jasmine rice. Turned slow cooker to high for another hour and it was so… satisfying. Serve with some crusty bread (if you indulge) and a salad and you’ve got dinner!
Really great recipe. Only change was peas since no corn, and 4 sprigs thyme and those wee taties since I’m lazy. Just had to fish out the seems with the bay leaves. Happy Holidays
This was first time using a ham bone for soup and I was impressed. I didn’t have kidney beans so I used green beans. It doesn’t matter what you use because the ham bone makes the broth so savory. This is a keeper for my Christmas ham bones.
I always thought rule of thumb was one teaspoon fresh herb to 1/2 teasoon dried
If you want to increase stock amount you can use canned chichen or veg broth and a gelatin slurry to imitate the ham stock mouth feel from the bones. Also I used the small peewee white potatoes so no peeling required. Really great recipe.
I want to try this recipe after Christmas but I am wondering if I can use dried thyme instead of fresh one. If so, how much should I put?
I’ve noticed that many of the responses to the questions (If the questions are even responded to to begin with – note my prior comment) in the comments are generic, canned responses so I thought I would be helpful with a couple tips.
Normally I like to cook recipes from blogs where the folks who are answering questions try to provide helpful feedback, obviously within reason but I really thought this recipe sounded wonderful so here we are!
For those of you who maybe want to make this recipe without boiling a hambone (or even double it), I found that 5 1/2 cups of hambone broth worked wonderfully for the soup! Also, Better Than Bouillon makes a Ham Base and I used it in my doubled portion with great results. If you’re not able to find it in a local store, I know Amazon carries it.
I’m glad that I am not the only one annoyed when the blogger doesn ‘t bother to respond to questions. Why even have the option for folks to leave a comment?
For what it’s worth, I make my ham broth the day before and refrigerate it overnight. That way I can scrape the fat right off the top. Add whatever kind of beans and veggies you like.
In the bloggers’ defense, this recipe was posted six years ago and they did respond to many questions during the first couple of years. Eventually it does become the same questions asked over and over, and resolution to a problem identified by a commenter today may well be found in posts and responses made in tbe past. It’s not unreasonable to expect blog readers to browse the comment history first before asking an old question anew. Bloggers move on in time just as we do and it’s unrealistic to expect them to review years-old posts again and again just in case a question turns up.
I agree with Pennyaline
Agreed, but glad to know the post is still going strong! Must be an epic recipe!!!
Hi! If I’m wanting to double the recipe but still only using 6-7 cups of water to cover the hambone, should I use chicken broth for the doubled portion of broth and what’s the total amount of liquid between my boiled broth and the added broth that you would recommend? Can’t wait to try this! 🙂
Great soup!!!!
I’ve been making this recipe during the holidays and keep coming back to it year after year. Mine has become a bit of a Paleo/low carb version. We cut up carrots, celery and onions and usually leave out the potatoes, beans and corn. It’s really tasty with cauliflower rice and spinach as well. Just pour the soup over fresh spinach
Excellent! I pretty much stuck to the recipe (put in extra vegetables, extra garlic, and replaced kidney beans with garbanzo beans) and it was perfect.
My family LOVED this recipe! I used a honey baked ham and made the broth, then refrigerated it overnight. I skimmed the fat the next evening and followed the recipe with extra garlic and pepper. I substituted fresh green beans for canned white beans. Adding the ham at the end left it tender and delicious. Thank you for the fabulous recipe!
My family LOVED this recipe! I substituted fresh green beans for canned white beans. Adding the ham at the end left it tender and delicious. Congratulations on another fabulous recipe!
Wow! This is the best soup I’ve made in a while! A few adjustments I made were to double the garlic, double the bay leaves and used a drained can of corn instead of frozen. I precooked the bone broth the night before and scraping off the fat before combining into the soup mix was an added health bonus. I also let it cook for 30-45 min over all so the flavors could really meld together. I can’t wait for leftovers today!
Awesome Soup… I’ll never throw away a ham bone again. Just an idea, I ask added a half can if crushed tomatoes…. Yummy
Yes it was simple and very delicious. Even if not a ham lover think hearty vegetable soup. Add more garlic! Mark