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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I froze a ham bone from our Easter ham and have been searching for a yummy soup to use it for that everyone in my family would like. We can eat soup any time of the year, but we live in FL where its already in the 90s daily, so a thick and hearty soup wasn’t really something that appeled to me.
This soup was delicious! Seriously, it felt like a warm hug (which is very comforting during this Covid pandemic)
I followed the recipe almost exactly with the exception of using corn I had previously grilled on the cob. I also added a little chopped celery simply because I had some and my Thyme was dried rather than fresh.
I just had 2 bowls for lunch! I’ll serve it to my family tonight with hot biscuits and I am confident they will live it as much as I do.
This will be in my permanent soup recipe rotation!!
I was thinking the same thing it’s so hot but I’m in the mood for ham soup. Ft Myers here hon. To dang hot. But soup is what the dr or rather mom ordered. Turn the ac low and have soup. Did you tweak it or left as is? I have 2 ham bones. So I’m gonna ham this up..
We made this soup with leftover Easter ham.
Smoky and sweet deliciousness! Quick to prepare.
Thank You “Google Home”!
I made this soup last week with the hambone left over from Easter dinner. It was so amazing!!! We ate half of it and I froze the other half because we had already eaten soooo much ham for several days. But, I’m starting to crave it, so I’ll probably pull it out of the freezer next week for lunches. So easy and sooooo yummy! Thanks!
Awesome meal. Thank you!!! I plan to make it again, but next time I’ll add some flour or corn starch to thicken the liquid, cover it with biscuits, and pop the whole thing int the oven for a bit to make it a ham bone soup pot pie. Can’t wait!
This was amazing. Made from my leftover Easter ham bone that I’d normally toss. When I made the stock I was worried would be too greasy. But no. Just awesome, smoky deliciousness. Made it one day, then served the next. I added extra carrots potatoes and ham and used a bit more water for stock so we’d have leftovers. Will definitely make this again.
I was looking for a ham-bone recipe that did not require a pre-made soup. This fit the bill. OMGosh – this was fantastic. It way exceeded my expectations – extremely flavorful. I used garbanzo beans (for the white bean), I didn’t have any corn – so that was left out … suggestion to 1st time makers – if you want to boil/simmer for an hour – I would add more water in the beginning stage. This recipe has already been shared! Thank you.
This was great! Everyone loved it even the picky toddler. Thank you!
Thanks for the awesome recipe. It was quick and easy with ingredients normally on hand. The only thing I would do differently is increase the carrots and potatoes because it was so good!
AMAZING SOUP!!! I have to say it’s literally my favorite soup I’ve ever made and had. Only change I made was adding more potatoes and carrots (I love both so no such thing as too much). Absolutely amazing. So easy to make too, ham bone stock is a must.
This is a very hearty soup. I added chicken stock and 2 cups of shredded ham added great northern beans instead of kidney, celery, garlic, onion and carrots and used red potatoes. I did not add corn. Came out delicious. Thank you.
This soup is a “10!”
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.