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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This soup is fabulous! I put a frozen honey-baked ham bone in a pressure cooker on high for 30 minutes. I had also added water, carrots, celery and 2 bay leaves. When it was done, I discarded the bones and mushy veg and put the meat from the bones in a dish in the fridge. I then refrigerated the stock overnight to skim the fat off the next day. After that, I followed the recipe. I had a box of veg stock to use if the ham broth was too sweet, but it wasnt so I didnt use it. Thank you so much for a wonderful, hearty soup recipe! Outstanding!
This was amazing. I followed almost exactly…I did do the first step to make the broth in the InstaPot for 30 mins prior to finishing the soup. I find that the InstaPot does a wonderful job getting all the flavor out of bones for stock. It did NOT disappoint.
yummy! I threw in chopped leek, handful of peas and a little turmeric to give some nice color! Get’s nice and thick on it’s own.
I am not one to waste food so after eating the ham for dinner I wanted to use the hambone for something. I am so glad I came upon this recipe for leftover hambone soup! It was easy and delicious, with so many fresh vegetables and other easily attainable ingredients. Can’t wait to share it with my neighbor and family.
I keep coming back to this soup as the way to use the leftover ham bone. It comes across as a good soup with beans, rather than a bean soup (this is a good thing, as far as my hubby is concerned). Thanks!
You’re so welcome, Carolin!
Fantastic soup!! Nice and hearty plus a change from all the split pea and ham recipes out there. Only substitution I made was to switch out the regular potato for a sweet potato.
I substituted garbanzo beans for the white beans. I added twice as much carrots, potatoes and 2 cans of corn. This is because it was what I had on hand and….This is delicious!! My hubby’s response was “Just like my mom used to make!!” Enough said!! 🙂
It was good but I added some ingredients… extra carrot, extra garlic and potato, leek instead of onion (white part only) and a generous dose of a homemade sodium free “lawrey’s” or “Johny’s” type seasoning. Also my daughter wanted me to add egg noodles. Makes it go further when you have a crowd.
Good base recipe though, thanks!
This became a fast family favorite!
Awesome!
Thank you for this wonderful recipe! I’ve made it many, many times. I always choose to serve ham at the holidays so I will have a leftover ham bone to make this soup 🙂
Could the ham stock be made in an Instant Pot before proceeding with the rest of the recipe? If so, how long would you recommend at high pressure?
What a great idea! But unfortunately, without having tried this myself, I cannot answer with certainty. As always, please use your best judgment when making substitutions and modifications.
Love it, I did the ham bone with some dried beans in the instant pot for an hour then made the soup in a regular pot, also added leftover peas from our ham dinner, delicious!
GLAD TO SEE THIS RECIPE BECAUSE I ALWAYS MAKE PEA SHOP AND WILL TRY THIS NEW WAY I WILL LET YOU HOW IT COME OUT.
This soup was sooo good and a nice change for leftover ham. Everyone loved it!
Delicious
This is the best. I didn’t have a potato so I cut up Mrs. Bs Frozen biscuits after thawing. So great, gotta go get another bowl. oxo
This is the second time my hubby has made this because we got some half hams for $9 each. Every time we made a half ham, we have plenty of ham left over to make hambone soup AND package some up for sandwiches for hubby’s work lunch’s. (Just hubby, toddler and I so plenty of leftovers!). This recipe is so delicious! We use canned or frozen carrots and corn. We’ve had it with white kidney beans & red kidney beans, both ways were delicious! Also we add more garlic and onion to ours.
YUM!
Making the hambine soup per the recipe and then the ham vegetable soup was fantastic!! Just made it this evening 11/9/2018 and it was perfect…and the house smells amazing!
I just made this and it is YUMMY!
I look for recipes on occasion but have never bookmarked a particular site. After browsing through yours, I bookmarked it and plan on using a ton of your recipes! Just wanted to say THANK YOU, Chungah! You’re helping many of us cooking-challenged peeps to impress our loved ones with simple, easy to use recipes that taste delicious! Your site name is well deserved!
This soup is amazing! I’ve been making it for 2 years after every thanksgiving and Christmas ham we have from the honey baked ham. HBH also sells ham bones year round so it makes it easy to make this soup without having first eating a whole ham!
Soup was very tasty. Need to watch salt content as stock can be very salty depending on your of ham. I put in a couple of sacrificial potatoes to absorb the excessive salt.
You can always use low sodium broth to help keep it down. Thanks for your feedback!
This looks great but cooking for two leaves leftovers. Can you freeze this without it going into mush?
Freezing sounds like an amazing idea but unfortunately, I cannot answer this with certainty as I have never tried freezing this myself. Please use your best judgment for freezing and reheating.