Transform your holiday leftovers into a cozy, comforting meal with this Ham Bone Vegetable Soup Slow Cooker Recipe! Packed with potatoes, beans, and colorful vegetables, this hearty soup is easy to prepare, bursting with flavor, and the perfect way to repurpose your Easter or Christmas ham.
Original post: January 2016 | Updated: November 2022 and November 2024
Why This Slow Cooker Ham Bone Soup Recipe Works
- Great use for your leftover Christmas ham so it doesn’t go to waste!
- We typically enjoy a huge ham every Easter and sometimes for Christmas dinner. This is hands-down my favorite way to use a leftover holiday ham bone.
- It’s such an easy soup to prepare and has tons of flavor.
- This slow cooker soup is packed with potatoes, beans and vegetables, making it a complete meal made with very little effort.
- The best part about this delicious soup is that your slow cooker does the heavy lifting so you can kick your feet up and relax after a big holiday.
Recipe Ingredients for Ham Bean Soup
Ham bone – Use one leftover cooked ham bone for this soup, preferably with a bit of meat still to the bone. It’s ok if the bone extends beyond the top of your slow cooker. You can wrap it with foil as it cooks.
Potatoes – For best results use russet potatoes, but substitutions are Yukon gold or red potatoes.
Carrots – Load up on fresh carrots!
Corn – This ingredient isn’t essential, but adds a nice texture, flavor and color to the dish. Canned corn can be replaced with equal amounts of frozen corn.
Beans – Kidney beans are the perfect addition to this recipe, but you can swap this variety out for pinto beans, navy beans, white beans, great northern beans, cannellini beans or any other hearty variety that holds its shape well in soup.
You may use dried beans for this recipe. Dry beans should soak overnight and according to package directions before using.
Tomatoes – A can of diced tomatoes adds a ton of flavor, plus some extra juices to the dish.
Chicken Bouillon Cubes – Use 6 cups water + 2 bouillon cubes, or 48 oz chicken broth, chicken stock, ham stock, ham bone broth or vegetable stock.
Toppings – Before serving, garnish the soup with freshly grated black pepper, chopped fresh parsley, fresh thyme or Parmesan cheese.
How To Make Crock Pot Ham and Bean Soup
Step 1
Place the following ingredients into a 6-quart crock pot:
- 1 leftover hambone (fully cooked and preferably with a bit of meat still attached)
- Kidney beans
- Potatoes
- Carrots
- Corn
- Diced tomatoes
- 6 cups water + chicken Bouillon cubes
Step 2
Cook on low heat for 8 hours or high heat for 5-6 hours. Toward the end of cooking (approximately one hour before it’s done), place ham bone on a cutting board and allow it to cool for 15 minutes.
Step 3
Remove the meat from the ham bone and add it to the crockpot. Give the mixture a good stir and discard bone. Serve when soup is warmed through.
Recipe Notes for Leftover Ham Bone Soup
- If you’d like to make this soup without a ham bone, replace it with up to 3 cups diced ham.
- Add extra veggies and potatoes to the mixture for an extra hearty ham soup, such as celery, onions, sweet potatoes, canned beans, green beans or your favorite vegetables.
- Minced garlic or garlic powder would be delicious additions to this dish.
- For a thinner consistency and less chunky soup, use a potato masher to break down the potatoes and veggies once you have removed the ham hock from the crockpot.
- Ham hocks and ham shanks are not the same thing as ham bones, although both will work for this recipe. Not as much meat will come off the bone, but you’ll still get plenty of flavor.
- If you are unable to find a ham bone at the store, you’ll likely be able to find a hock or a shank at your local butcher or grocery store.
- Add a couple bay leaves to the pot for an added touch of flavor. Just remember to pull it out before serving!
Can You Freeze Ham on the Bone
If you are the lucky recipient of a Christmas or Easter dinner ham bone, but you will not be able to use it in the following 3-4 days, freeze it! Place it in a resealable freezer bag or airtight container. If using bags, squeeze out as much air as you can before sealing. Make sure the container is completely sealed. Freeze for up to 6 months for best results.
How To Thaw a Ham Bone
As a general rule you should thaw ham bones before using them in recipes, although it is possible to use a frozen ham bone when time is limited. Allow extra time for cooking if you use a frozen bone. When defrosting the bone first, place the entire container holding the bone in a bowl or sink filled with cold water until it has thawed. It can also defrost at room temperature or in the refrigerator, but will take more time.
What To Serve With Ham
Ham is a quintessential comfort food, but what do you serve alongside this savory star? Read on for 19 perfect ideas about what to serve with ham.
What To Serve With Soup
Soup is an easy, comforting meal to prepare for dinner any time of the year. But what do you serve alongside it? Click over for 33 delicious ideas about what to serve with soup. Here are a few other great ideas:
What To Do With Ham Bones
- Use your leftover ham bone to make this comforting, hearty Ham Bone Soup in your Instant Pot! Pressure cooking this meal allows you to get dinner on the table in less than an hour and it tastes like it has been simmering in a slow cooker all day long.
- Ham, split peas and an assortment of delicious carrots, peas and celery are the perfect combo in this hearty, comforting and traditional ham split pea soup. A truly savory soup will satisfy and fill you up.
- These delicious, baked Hot Ham and Cheese Sandwiches are also known as Tailgate Sandwiches because they are the perfect game-day party fare. They are bursting with flavor and gooey cheese!
- These delicious ham and cheese pretzel bites are the PERFECT party or game day food! Don’t be intimidated by the cooking process. It’s way easier than it looks! You will not be disappointed.
Best Ham Recipes
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Ham Bone Vegetable Soup (Slow Cooker) Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 ham bone cooked, with remnants
- 2 Russet potatoes peeled and cubed
- 5 carrots peeled and sliced
- 15 oz corn drained
- 30 oz kidney beans drained and rinsed
- 14.5 oz diced tomatoes
- 6 cups water
- 2 cubes chicken bouillon
Instructions
- Place all ingredients in a 6-quart crock pot. Cook on Low for 8 hours or High for 5-6 hours. One hour before soup is done, remove the ham bone and let cool on a cutting board for 15 minutes.
- Remove the meat from the ham bone and add it back to the crockpot. Discard bone. Serve when soup is warmed through.
Notes
- If you’d like to make this soup without a ham bone, replace it with up to 3 cups diced ham.
- Add extra veggies and potatoes to the mixture for an extra hearty ham soup, such as celery, onions, sweet potatoes, canned beans, green beans or your favorite vegetables.
- Minced garlic or garlic powder would be delicious additions to this dish.
- For a thinner consistency and less chunky soup, use a potato masher to break down the potatoes and veggies once you have removed the ham hock from the crockpot.
- Ham hocks and ham shanks are not the same thing as ham bones, although both will work for this recipe. Not as much meat will come off the bone, but you’ll still get plenty of flavor.
- If you are unable to find a ham bone at the store, you’ll likely be able to find a hock or a shank at your local butcher or grocery store.
- Add a couple bay leaves to the pot for an added touch of flavor. Just remember to pull it out before serving!
How many pounds is good for the ham bone? I buy mine fresh from Honeybaked Ham and then can be from 3-7lbs.
Whatever you have will work. No magic size! You have more flavor, you might want to make a bigger amount and freeze some for later though. Enjoy!
I have made this soup twice, and it is seriously delicious!!!
Agreed! So glad you tried it and loved it! Thank you for sharing!
How can I make in on the stovetop, or in the oven?
You can add your ingredients into a dutch oven and cook this over the stove easily! However, the steps are a little more involved as you might choose to brown your cook your bones first. If you cook it on the stove, it can be cooked low and slow over 10-12 hours.
This was delicious! It made quite a bit for our family very tasty and flavorful most certainly a hearty soup! Do you think this could be frozen and reheated to be equally the same or close to…. especially with potato and beans?
You can definitely freeze this either in a ziploc bag, in portions or in a big tupperware. Just be sure to leave space at the top for the soup to expand. When you are ready to reheat, you can put it on the stove top to reheat or leave it in the fridge to thaw and then warm. Thanks for reaching out with a good question!
Instead of canned beans, can you use dry beans? As I figure with all the liquid, they would cook right along in the soup but wanted to make sure.
Hi Tonya, dry beans are great to use! I would check the directions of the bag you have to see how much water is needed and the timing. Great question!
Can you used canned pintos instead of kidney beans?
Can this be done in the pressure cooker???
Hi Christy, I imagine that it can! I haven’t bought one yet though so I don’t have any recommended recipes.
Just put this soap together using the ham bone from Easter dinner. Easy and smells delicious!
I hope it turned out great, Jill! We LOVE this soup!
Megan
So good! My husband hates my cooking, so since he loved this he claimed to have made it! Great, easy to make soup! Just my style, only it tasted amazing!
Yum! I love a ham soup and this one looks packed full of veggies just the way I like it!
I love soups that you can just dump into the crockpot and forget about! This one looks so cozy and perfect for those chilly winter nights!
I know exactly how you feel! The post-holidays rush is even crazier than the holiday season sometime. Phew! So glad you managed to survive though–here’s to a happy 2016, and this soup!!