One thing that I always like to do with leftover ham is to make a soup as it adds a ton of flavour to soups. If you got your ham with the bone in you can toss it into the soup and it will add even more flavour. The ham bone freezes well so if you do not plan on making a ham soup right away you can easily freeze it until needed. (You can also use the ham bone to make a tasty ham stock that can be used in other soups.) To the tasty ham broth and diced ham I like to add a bunch of vegetables starting with some classic soup vegetables including onions, carrots and celery and from there I often add another green vegetable such as green beans or spinach to make it a bit healthier. To make the soup a little more hearty I add some legumes and chickpeas, lentils or pretty much any bean works well here. After you have done all of your chopping and dicing you can pretty much just sit back and let the soup simmer away. It is better to let a ham soup simmer for a long while to bring out all of the ham flavours but if you are in a hurry you can cut the cooking time short. I like a chunky soup so I do not use as much broth and this ham and chickpea turned out nice and chunky and full of flavour! I served the soup with some toasted cheesy garlic bread which was perfect for soaking up that last bit of broth at the bottom of the bowl.
Ham and Chickpea Soup
ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 onion (diced)
- 1 carrot (diced)
- 2 stalks celery (diced)
- 2 cloves garlic (chopped)
- 4-6 cups ham broth or chicken broth or chicken stock
- 2 cups ham (diced)
- 1 ham bone (optional)
- 2 (19 ounce) cans chickpeas (drained and rinsed)
- 1 teaspoon oregano
- 1 bay leaf
- pepper to taste
- 1/2 pound green beans (cleaned, trimmed and cut)
directions
- Heat the oil in a large sauce pan.
- Add the onions, carrot and celery and saute until tender, about 10-15 minutes.
- Add the garlic and saute for a few minutes.
- Add the stock, ham, chickpeas, oregano and bay leaf and simmer, covered on low heat for at least 20 minutes.
- Add the green beans and simmer until the green means are cooked al dente.
Ham and Lentil Soup
Split Pea Soup
Spinach, White Bean and Turkey Sausage Soup
Maple, Bourbon Ham and Baked Bean Soup
Bean and Ham Soup
Wow, that's a beautiful bowl of soup!
I have a ham bone leftover from Easter just asking to be used in a soup base. Thanks for the inspiration.
Kevin, that's a gorgeous bowl of soup. This is a wonderful way to use up left over ham!
This soup looks amazing. The best-looking bowl I've ever seen. Thanks for sharing this recipe.
I really love you recipes. Thank you for the great effort!
This is a great way to enjoy leftover ham – I love the flavor of ham and ham bones.
wow looks awesome i try this out..thanks a lot
A great way to use the leftover ham! Delicious and healthy!
Cheers,
Rosa
i loveee soups and the flavor of ham is just yummylicious!! we dont get much of ham out here its quite rare 🙁 nice recipe 🙂
You always have such great leftover ideas! I don't think I've ever seen such a colorful bowl of soup.
This looks fantastic! We have a monstrous 8lb bone-in ham in our freezer from this month's meat CSA delivery, and I've been bookmarking some of your leftovers for after we bake it, and this one is definitely going on the list!
Que rica sopa te ha salido. Gracias por la receta
Oh, that looks SO good! Now I wish I'd made the ham this year for Easter so that I had leftovers to make this soup.