Delicious in-season vegetable ham bone soup is a super easy way to create a healthy and hearty meal using leftover ham, a ham bone, and vegetables you have on hand.
This article is a part of Tuesdays In The Garden full of fall garden-to-table recipes. Below this yummy vegetable ham bone soup recipe, you’ll find even more inspiring recipes that use seasonal produce from our Tuesdays in the Garden group that I know you will love!
Many people I know think of ham as a holiday meat, just grabbing a whole or spiral ham for Christmas or Easter. The rest of the year it seems to be reserved for lunch meat.
But ham is one of my favorite meats and it can be pretty frugal if you buy a couple when they’re on sale and freeze them for later. I’ll bake one for dinner and slice off the rest for lunches, frittatas, and casseroles. What’s left after that is a bone with a good amount of meat that makes great broth and is the basis for another of my favorites, a delicious vegetable ham bone soup.
It’s so easy to throw this soup together in a pot on the stove, a Crockpot or an Instant Pot. Not only is the cooking method versatile, the soup is, too, using whatever in-season vegetables you have. If you’re not ready to make ham bone soup right away, the bone can be thrown in the freezer with all the meat pieces attached and pulled out when you are ready for a warm and comforting bowl of tasty soup.
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Vegetable Ham Bone Soup
Making soup with a ham bone is pretty simple and to be the most versatile, I use two steps:
- make a ham bone broth
- add vegetables, beans, etc. to make the soup
To make the broth, put the ham bone in a pot, cover the bone with water and add a chopped onion. You can use a slow cooker, and Instant Pot or a stockpot on the stove.
When the meat is starting to fall off the bone (or you get home from work, or the timer dings…whatever), remove it from the liquid (now a wonderful ham broth) and set it on a cutting board to cool. Once you can touch it without burning your hands off, pull the meat off, cut up any big pieces and remove any remaining fat before adding the meat back to the broth in the pot.
Now from this base of broth, onion, and ham you can create lots different soups – split-pea soup, ham and potato chowder, ham and bean soup, or my favorite, a simple harvest vegetable soup using in-season vegetables and whatever else I may have in the fridge.
This time I included chopped cabbage, a small amount of chopped kale, a diced sweet red pepper, a diced jalapeño pepper, fresh corn cut from the cob (frozen of course is great, too), and a defrosted container of pre-cooked, frozen garbanzo beans. And if you are making this around the holidays, you can even throw in holiday leftovers like mashed potatoes and cooked vegetables!
Add your chosen ingredients to the broth and ham in the pot plus seasonings of garlic, pepper, thyme and basil. Cook until everything’s tender – 15 minutes for an Instant Pot, 1 hour on the stove top, or 2-4 hours with a slow cooker, your choice!
This obviously makes a ton of soup which is okay with me since it’s just as good warmed up for lunches. It freezes well, too, and freezing some in small portions is super convenient for quick meals on busy days.
It’s time to stock up on ham bones, right? (Oh, and once you tell people you like to make soup with bones, they’ll be offering them to you at every holiday so don’t be shy!)
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Donna says
March 9 at 2:12 pmDoes the ham bone make the soup greasy, and does anything have to be skinned from the top before adding the vegetables?
Jami says
March 14 at 2:18 pmI don’t find it too greasy, but if you’re concerned, you can always start the broth the day before, refrigerate, and skim off fat you see the next day before proceeding with the recipe.
Courtney Jade says
January 7 at 4:18 pmIf I add cabbage to my hambone soup, do I need to boil it on the stove first or just wash it & throw in my slow cooker at same time as the other veggies I’m adding?? This looks delicious! 😍
Jami says
January 10 at 10:17 amYou can just throw it all in and cook it with the other vegetables, Courtney! And it is so good. 🙂
Mary says
September 9 at 8:56 amI’ve pinned this recipe. Like you, ham is one of my most favorite meats. I’ll be making this soup when the weather turns a bit cooler. Thank you for such a wonderful recipe, Jami!
Jami says
September 11 at 2:58 pmI hope you like it, Mary – thank YOU. 🙂
Angie Rose says
September 8 at 12:05 pmThis looks absolutely delicious Jami! It’s been rainy and cold here lately. Perfect recipe for the fall season. I’m definitely going to try making it 🙂
Diane Williams says
September 7 at 10:38 pmOne of my very favorite ways to use up a hambone and holiday leftovers is to make a hambone soup. So good to use up harvest vegetables this way. I LOVE hambone soup! Thank for sharing this recipe. I can just about taste the yumminess looking at your pics!
Jami says
September 8 at 9:17 pmThanks Diane!
Julie says
September 5 at 10:28 pmAutumn has definitely arrived here, darker in the mornings and evenings damp grass chilly, can’t have our heating on yet as boiler broken, so small fires to dry the chimney out and this soup. It looks delicious ????
Jami says
September 8 at 9:17 pmYes, time to break out the soup for sure.
Cecile Lowrey says
September 5 at 8:56 pmYum, soup, soup,soup my favorite thing to make and to eat. If I didn’t live with my sister I think I would just eat soup everyday!
Jami says
September 8 at 9:16 pmHa! It’s funny that it seems some people love soup and others don’t.
Sherry St. Mary says
September 9 at 6:53 amI cannot imagine anyone not loving a good home made soup and this looks so yummy to me. I have a great big hambone with lots of meat on it which I intend to boil today and add what I have in stock, Lots of potatoes, cabbage, a jar of home canned tomatoes, onion, bell pepper, corn off the cob, big ole jalapeno and whatever I come up with. Watching Irma’s dreadful news since I have sons and grands on the Gulf Coast. We will more than likely have lots of hurricane damage on our house there. Praying for everyone down there to be safe. God Bless you sweet Jami
Jami says
September 11 at 2:59 pmThat sounds heavenly, Sherry! Yes, I hope the hurricane season passes quickly for all those affected. 🙁
Shelly says
September 5 at 3:31 pmWe love soup this time of year and ham soup is one of our favorites. You have me hungry just thinking about it.
Michelle Marine says
September 5 at 6:31 amThis recipe speaks to my heart. Jami, we must be kindred spirits for we share a love of not only Anne of Green Gables, but also Greek flavors and good ole ham-n-bean soup. 🙂 I haven’t tried to make this in my Instant Pot yet. Guess I need to get busy. Happy Tuesday!
Jami says
September 5 at 4:06 pmYes! Though when you write it out like that, it seems an odd combo, doesn’t it? 😉 I’m just glad it works for us!
Patti says
September 5 at 5:19 amWe had some unusually cool weather this week and I’m so ready for it. I can’t wait to start cooking warm yummy dishes like this hearty soup. I’m so glad it’s a crockpot recipe as I’m trying to use ours more to save time in the kitchen. Thanks.
Jami says
September 5 at 4:07 pmI too love the crockpot – the smells it creates, how the food is magically ready at dinner. I hope you enjoy this!
Jami @An Oregon Cottage says
April 22 at 3:21 amYum! I made one recently too. 😉
Diana says
April 21 at 7:12 pmMaking the ham-bone soup today (a cold 56 degree cloudy day here in the “sunny south”! I wondered why I had that ham bone in the freezer. Thanks for the recipe. I’m making sweet potato biscuits to go with the soup.
Diana
Joy says
February 26 at 10:43 pmBrings back memories, my Mom used to make soup like that.
Leila says
February 26 at 3:34 amA hambone is a glorious thing. This is just what I do. I call it refrigerator-cleaning soup, which is just not elegant 🙂
Mine often ends up minestrone-like, but sometimes it’s pea soup, plain and simple. But it’s always so good!
Thanks for the pictures and method!
Jenelle says
February 25 at 7:58 pmI never would have thought of ading the mashed potatos. Great idea!
Christy says
February 25 at 3:15 pmDang girl that sounds good!!! I love it when I can make something from leftovers.