This Leftover Ham and Bean Soup recipe uses up the bone and extra meat from a ham to make a flavorful and mouthwatering soup. Get ready for a delicious, hearty and heavenly smelling dinner.
The Best Leftover Ham And Bean Soup
Maybe you made a honey mustard glazed ham, or perhaps it was glazed with brown sugar and cola. No matter how you prepared it, I have an awesome recipe for your leftovers! I don’t know about you, but when I’m in charge of making a big family dinner I’ll buy a larger ham than what I’ll actually need. This is the one time I get excited about leftovers! There are so many amazing uses for leftover ham, but this soup really tops the charts for me.
This ham and bean soup is really simple. It’s a classic that will take some of us back down memory lane, and fill you right up at the same time. I don’t mess around when it comes to an amazing ham and bean soup! This soup is to die for. As it was cooking, the entire house smelled ridiculously good, probably drove the neighbours crazy, not to mention the hubs and the dog.
Leftover Ham And Bean Soup Highlights
- Perfect Use Of That Leftover Ham. Regardless of how you make your ham, you can use the leftovers from your Easter, Christmas or Thanksgiving ham to make this delicious soup.
- Uses Pantry Staple Ingredients. Chances are all the ingredients used in this soup are already existing in your refrigerator or pantry.
- Hearty And Delicious. This soup is incredibly flavorful and hearty. Total crowd pleaser.
Ingredients You’ll Need
- Ham – This recipe is so delicious that I would even go out to just buy a small ham to make the soup if I don’t have leftovers.
- Ham bone – Shave off as much of the meat as you can, but it’s okay to leave some on. That meat will still flavor the broth. If your ham doesn’t have a bone don’t worry about it, but if it does, you’ll wan to to add it to the soup for that extra flavor. You can also use ham hocks and they will add lots of great smoky flavor to your soup.
- Mirepoix – The trifecta for all soups composed of onions, carrots and celery stalks. These veggies are what’s going to boost of our soup’s flavor.
- Garlic – The more garlic the merrier! You can use as much or as little as you like.
- Parsnip – I know some people have it out for parsnips, but trust me here. They add amazing flavor to the broth! I added them in large chunks to cook the soup and they’re removed before serving.
- Bay leaves – Use whole bay leaves. If you don’t have any at home, add them to your grocery list! They add a delicious peppery herb flavor to the soup.
- Vegetable broth – This has a mild taste and is still a great base to build up all your flavor. Use a low sodium broth if you can find it. You can replace this with a low sodium chicken broth.
- Cannellini beans – These are also referred to as white kidney beans. Always rinse canned beans before using them.
- Parsley – I love to use parsley as a fresh and bright garnish.
How To Make Leftover Ham And Bean Soup
- Prepare the soup. In a large soup pot, add the oil over medium heat. Stir in the onion, carrots, and celery. Cook for a few minutes until the onion becomes tender. Add the garlic, ham, ham bone, parsnip, bay leaves, and broth. Bring to a boil over high heat then lower to medium heat and cook for 30 minutes.
- Finish the soup: Add the beans, cumin, thyme, and season lightly with salt and pepper. Let everything cook for another 30 minutes, then remove the bone, bay leaves, and parsnip. Season to taste.
What Other Types of Beans Can I Use?
Cannellini beans are pretty popular for soups, but if you have a few other types hanging out in your pantry that you want to use up then check out this list to see if they’ll work:
- Navy beans
- Gigante beans
- Lentils
- Kidney beans
Can I Use a Boneless Ham?
Yes! If you don’t have a ham bone, just skip it, it’s used to flavor the soup. You can add some extra herbs and seasoning to build more flavor if you feel it’s lacking without the bone, or use ham hocks. Using a soup enhancer such as bouillon or vegeta is a great way to add flavor.
Slow Cooker Ham And Bean Soup
A question I get asked often is whether or not you can make this soup in a slow cooker and the answer is of course, yes! It’s incredibly easy, just add everything to your crockpot and cook on low for 8 hours. You don’t even have to remove the meat off the bone first, you can leave that till after the soup cooks and then pull all the meat from the bone and shred or chop it.
How to Store Leftovers
This recipe makes a pretty decent amount of soup, so if you venture into the lands of leftover leftovers, I have a few options for you.
This ham and soup will stay good for 3-4 days in an airtight container stored in your fridge.
You can definitely store your soup in the freezer if you’d like. You can store it either in a large airtight container, or in smaller individual containers. Thaw either in the microwave or on the stovetop over medium heat. This soup will last 2-3 months frozen.
Craving More Recipes for Your Leftover Ham? Try These:
- Leftover Ham and Cheese Penne
- Olive Ham and Cheese Loaf
- Leftover Turkey Noodle Soup
- Split Pea Soup
- Leftover Pistachio Pesto Turkey Sandwich
- Leftover Turkey Shepherd’s Pie
- Hawaiian Ham and Cheese Stromboli
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Leftover Ham and Bean Soup
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 large onion chopped
- 3 stalks celery chopped
- 2 medium carrots chopped
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 2 cups leftover ham chopped in cubes
- 1 leftover ham bone
- 1 whole parsnip peeled and cleaned
- 2 bay leaves
- 8 cups vegetable broth low sodium
- 19 ounce cannellini beans (1 can), drained and rinsed
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1 teaspoon thyme
- â…› teaspoon salt or to taste
- ¼ teaspoon pepper or to taste
- ¼ cup fresh parsely chopped, for garnish
Instructions
- 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 the broth. 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.
- Add rinsed beans, cumin, thyme and season with salt and pepper. Continue cooking for another 30 minutes.
- Remove ham bone, bay leaves and parsnip. Garnish with parsley and serve.
Recipe Notes
- I don’t have leftover ham or ham bone, can I still make this: Yes! You can purchase a prepackaged ham from your local grocery store and use that instead of leftover ham. If you don’t have a ham bone, just skip it, it’s used to flavor the soup.=
- Can I chop up the parsnip: Yes, of course. I use a whole parsnip to simply flavor the soup, but I know some people prefer to actually eat, so in that case, chop it first, then add it to the soup.
- Can I use dry beans instead of canned beans: Absolutely, just keep in mind that dry beans take longer to cook. You’ll need about 1 cup of dry beans for this recipe. Also if using dry beans, you can soak them in water overnight if you choose. Usually this is done to speed up the cooking process, however studies have shown that it will only cut about 10 minutes of cooking time.
- How do I store leftovers: Store leftover soup in a covered glass or plastic container in the fridge for 3 to 4 days.
- Can I freeze this soup: Yes you can. While the soup will only last 3 to 4 days in the fridge, it can last up to a month in the freezer. Make sure the soup is cooled completely first. Use freezer bags for this such as gallon or quart-size top plastic freezer bags. Ladle soup into each bag then let out any excess air and seal. Lay bags flat in a single layer in the freezer. Once they’re frozen you can stack them to save space. To reheat, thaw them overnight in your fridge then pour them in a saucepan and reheat over low heat. You can also reheat them in the microwave.
Nutrition Information:
Originally shared Nov 2014.
Such an incredible tasting soup! I was missing parsnips, but it didn’t impact the flavor. Thank you!
It’s my husband’s ,dad,and sisters favorite. I love it too and I’m very picky. This is 4th time I’ve made.
You mentioned using pork hocks, how would one prepare them for the soup.
Hi Louise! Basically the same way, add the pork hocks in step 2. Remove the hack hocks after the one hour cook time, and let it cool a bit so you can handle it, then pull the meat from it and shred. Just add it back and finish the soup as instructed.
It’s so good. Was just wondering the calories is that per cup?
It’s per serving, the nutritional info assumes 8 servings for the recipe.
A hit! I made with bone broth, cut up the parsnip into the soup and added some kielbasa style chorizo per my husband’s request. It is so good. My stepson keeps saying how good it is.
I added a can of stewed herbed tomatoes for a little extra flavor and color. This is a beautiful soup.
So glad you liked it Jay!
This was a super easy soup to put together and came out delicious! My only addition was adding a can of Rotel (diced tomatoes with green chilies) which gave it a tiny bit of zip and is also pretty.
This is a solid basic recipe. I didn’t have the bone, so I ended up having to doctor it up to add flavor. I used chicken stock and added a little bit of soy sauce and hot sauce. I had a zucchini, so I added that into the pot close to the end of cooking and then took the zucchini chunks out and pureed with about 1.5 cups of the soup to make the consistency creamier (and to disguise the zucchini, which my kids won’t eat). I served with tortilla chips and sour cream and it was delicious.
Great recipe! This makes for a great meal using the leftover Christmas ham and ham bone. Family loved it! This was pretty easy for this kitchen challenged Dad to make. Thanks for the great recipes!
So happy you liked it!
Any changes to the recipe for slow cookers? How about cooking time? Or should I skip the slow cooker on this one?
I mean you can make it in a slow cooker, you don’t have to skip it. I would do it about 6 to 8 hours on low.
How would I make it in the slow cooker ? I want to try this for dinner tomorrow night
I would probably add everything to a slow cooker and cook on low for 7 to 8 hours.