Leftover Ham and Bean Soup

Leftover Ham and Bean Soup – perfect use of that leftover ham from Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner. This soup is delicious, hearty and smells heavenly.

Well I finally did it. I finally cooked a ham. A whole ham! A big one at that too, it was about 11 lbs. It was easy peasy.

But of course I had lots of leftover ham, like 8 lbs or so. So what’s a girl to do with all that ham. Well my dog would say “Put it down on the floor and I’ll clean the plate”. But we can’t do what she wants because she would literally eat 8 lbs of ham. I know she would. One time she ate a whole bag of Dentastix, a bag of 18 sticks and there were 2 left, and the only reason there were 2 left is because we came home and found her having fun with the bag. OMG I can’t tell you how worried we were. The bag was on the kitchen island, but she had found a way on top of the island, and helped herself to her favorite treat. I always used to wonder what she would do if I were to give her the entire bag. Well I wonder no more. I know she would eat the entire thing. Don’t worry, she was fine, we didn’t feed her much for the next 24 hours, we wanted to watch and see if she was going to get sick but nothing happened to her. Except she was quite happy. Well needless to say we learned our lesson and we now hide those treats better. So you see, this is why I think that she would and is quite capable of eating 8 lbs of ham.

As I was pondering what to make with all that ham, I remembered my mom’s ham and bean soup. So good and such a comforting dish. And that’s what I did. We still have lots of leftover ham, but this put a bit of a dent in it. But this soup is to die for. As it was cooking, the entire house smelled heavenly, probably drove the neighbors crazy, not to mention the hubs and the dog. The dog especially, parked herself by the stove and baby sat the soup as it was cooking.

Although you may think the list of ingredients may seem a bit long, trust me, it’s so easy to make. You’ll notice in the list of ingredients that you could use vegetable broth, or water with a tablespoon of Vegeta. I told you about Vegeta before when I shared with you the Crockpot Chicken Noodle Soup. It’s up to you what you use, vegetable broth would work just as well, but I personally prefer the flavor of Vegeta. I know many of you have bought it and asked what else you could use Vegeta for, so here’s another recipe that is perfect for it.

I can’t tell you how yummy this soup is, so comforting, so hearty and so filling. This may seem a bit strange to some of you, but we usually eat this with raw red onion and salt. You take a small piece of onion, dip it in salt and have at it with the soup. May sound strange, but boy does it give this soup a new flavor dimension. Totally yummy.

5.0 from 9 reviews

Leftover Ham and Bean Soup

 

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Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

1 hour

Total time

1 hour 10 mins

 

Author: Jo Cooks

Serves: 8

Ingredients

• 1 leftover ham bone
• 2 cups leftover ham, chopped in cubes
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2 medium carrots, chopped
• 3 celery stalks, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 whole parsnip, peeled and cleaned
• 3 (15 oz) cans cannelini beans (white kidney beans), drained and rinsed
• 1 tbsp Vegeta or 8 cups low sodium vegetable broth
• 8 cups of water if using Vegeta
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp thyme
• salt and pepper to taste
• ¼ cup fresh parsley, chopped

Instructions

1. In a large soup pot, heat olive oil. Add onion, celery and carrot and cook for about 5 minutes until onion is tender. Add garlic, ham, ham bone, parsnip, bay leaves and either the broth or the water plus vegeta. If you don't have a ham bone, just skip it. Bring to a boil and lower heat to medium. Let cook for about 30 minutes.
2. Add rinsed beans, cumin, thyme and season with salt and pepper. Continue cooking for another 30 minutes.
3. Remove ham bone, bay leaves and parsnip. Garnish with parsley.

Nutrition Information

Serving size: 247g Calories: 225 Fat: 7.5g Saturated fat: 1.5g Unsaturated fat: 0.0g Trans fat: 0.0g Carbohydrates: 26.3g Sugar: 2.0g Sodium: 505mg Fiber: 7.5g Protein: 13.2g Cholesterol: 19mg

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