My family loves when I cook a big ham dinner. I love the leftover ham bone even more because it makes a nice pot of soup.
Ham is on our holiday dinner table often. We tend to indulge during a holiday so a nice pot of veggie soup flavored with a ham bone is a good meal for the next day.
It makes me feel less guilty about the homemade cream biscuits, sweet potato casserole, and chocolate cheesecake I made the day before.
Ham Bone Soup is easy to make and can be stored in the freezer. It takes a bit of time to cook but most of that time is just a pot simmering on the stove while other things are being done.
The kitchen smells delicious and the soup can easily be made in steps. I make the soup beforehand then heat it up when we are about to eat dinner.
A ham bone can also be stored in a freezer bag in the freezer until you are ready to make the soup.
Frozen vegetables are convenient to use in this recipe. I get the soup vegetables that have carrots, celery, potatoes and okra in them.
And the white beans make this soup hearty with extra protein. It all cooks up in a soup pot or Dutch oven to make a nice comfort food dinner.
Feel free to use different vegetables or swap out kidney beans for white beans.
My husband and son tend to eat up the ham on the ham bone because they have hearty appetites. No worries though, as you can always chop up some extra deli ham if you’d like more in your soup.
I’m fine with just a little ham and lots of veggies after the big holiday dinners. The important thing is to have that delicious ham bone flavor the broth.
When it comes to making a ham, I am all about making soup the next day. If you’d like a heartier soup, you can also try Split Pea Soup with Ham or Ham Potato Soup.
Just don’t forget about that ham bone to make soup!
Ham Bone Soup Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 Large Ham Bone with leftover meat still attached
- 6 Water plus extra if necessary
- 1 Dried Thyme
- 1 Garlic Powder
- 1 Lawry’s Seasoned Salt
- 1 Fire Roasted Tomatoes
- 2 Carrot peeled and chopped
- 1 White Beans rinsed and drained
- 2 Frozen Soup Vegetable Mix
- Salt and Pepper to taste
Instructions
- Place the leftover ham bone in a large soup pot or Dutch oven. Add the water to partially cover the ham bone. Stir in the thyme, garlic powder, seasoned salt and tomatoes.
- Cook on medium heat and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for about 1 hour.
- Remove hambone, chop up remaining meat, discard fat and reserve on a plate.
- Add carrots to broth.
- Cook for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until carrots are tender.
- Add reserved ham, beans and vegetables.
- Simmer for 10 minutes until vegetables are cooked then season with salt and pepper to taste.