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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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
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!