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Nothing beats Ham and potato Soup to warm you up on a chilly day. This delicious and easy soup uses a hambone, which you can get from your leftovers. It’s a great way to make something new from a previous night’s dinner.
Why I Think You’ll Love This Recipe
- This zero-waste recipe uses leftover meat & a hambone from a previous meal.
- It uses simple ingredients that you probably already have at home.
- This is a simple, basic, flavor-packed soup perfect for busy families.
Hearty Ham and Potato Soup
The good thing about potato soup is that it is not only easy to make but also very filling. Adding the saltiness of the ham and the richness of the cheese makes for a simple and easy meal for the whole family.
With or Without Leftovers
While we chose to use leftovers in this recipe along with the hambone, you can make this just as easily using a ham from the store and excluding the hambone. The choice is yours.
Preparing the Soup
To prepare the soup, follow the simple summary below. The full instructions are in the recipe card at the bottom of this post.
- Dice your potatoes, ham, and onion and place in the crockpot.
- Cook on high for 3-4 hours or low for 7-8 hours, depending on your needs.
- Finish by preparing a roux and topping with cheese before serving.
How to Store Leftovers
This recipe will last 3-4 days in the fridge in an air-tight sealed container. If you wish, you can freeze it as well. If possible, I recommend vacuum sealing to extend the soup’s life, but you can also freeze it in a sealed Tupperware container (I would recommend one with a screw-on lid so the lid doesn’t come off when freezing).
Enjoy!
Karlynn
Karlynn’s Tips
You can substitute chicken broth for ham or vegetable broth to alter the soup’s flavor profile to your needs.
Serve with my buttermilk biscuits or easy Bisquick biscuits for a complete meal.
Ham and Potato Soup
- Prep Time
- 10 minutes
- Cook Time
- 4 hours
- Total Time
- 4 hours 10 minutes
- Course
- Soup
- Cuisine
- American
- Servings
- 8
- Calories
- 323
- Author
- Karlynn Johnston
Ingredients
- 6 cups russet potatoes peeled and chopped into small cubes
- 2 cups chopped ham
- 1 cup white onion diced
- one ham bone if you have one
- 6 cups chicken broth
- 5 tablespoons butter
- 5 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 2 cups milk
- 1 cup cheddar cheese aged or old is the best for flavor
- 1 cup green peas fresh or frozen
Instructions
Slow Cooker Instructions
- Place the potatoes, ham, onions, and, if you have one, a ham bone in the bottom of a slow cooker.
- Pour the chicken broth over the ingredients, ensuring the potatoes are covered completely. If not, add some more broth to cover.
- Cook in the crockpot on high for 3-4 hours or 7-8 hours on low until the potatoes are slightly falling apart and the broth is cloudy.
- Prepare the roux. In a medium-size pot over low heat, melt the butter. Stir in the flour until it's combined, it will clump together; this is ok. Next, little by little, whisk in the milk, making sure that the milk is absorbed into the flour mixture without making it lumpy. Eventually, the mixture will be smooth.
- When all of the milk has been added and the mixture is smooth, add in the cheese and stir until melted.
- Move your potatoes to one side of the pot so there is a soup surface to mix in.
- Whisk in your milk sauce into the crockpot. Add in the peas and cook for another 15 minutes or so, stirring occasionally so there isn't a skin on the surface.
- Ladle into bowls to serve.
Stovetop Instructions
- Melt 2-3 tablespoons of butter in the bottom of a large lidded soup pot. Saute the onions until soft and translucent.
- Deglaze the bottom of the pan by pouring some of the stock into the pot, scraping any browned bits off the bottom. Once done, pour in the rest of the broth.
- Add in the potatoes, ham, onions, and, if you have one, a ham bone. Place the lid on top and cook for 45 minutes OR until the potatoes are soft and starting to fall apart.
- Prepare the roux. In a medium-size pot over low heat, melt the butter. Stir in the flour until it's combined, it will clump together; this is ok. Next, little by little, whisk in the milk, making sure that the milk is absorbed into the flour mixture without making it lumpy. Eventually, the mixture will be smooth.
- When all of the milk has been added and the mixture is smooth, add in the cheese and stir until melted.
- Move your potatoes to one side of the pot so there is a soup surface to mix in. Whisk the roux into the pot, slowly to ensure there are no lumps.
- Add in the peas and cook for another 5 minutes or so, stirring occasionally so there isn't a skin on the surface.
- Ladle into bowls to serve.
Nutrition Information
All calories and info are based on a third party calculator and are only an estimate. Actual nutritional info will vary with brands used, your measuring methods, portion sizes and more.
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Victoria says
Hey – just wondering do i pull the hambone out before i add in the roux?
Eric Balcom says
have you heard of Lumberjack cake ?
The Kitchen Magpie says
I have, but haven’t made it yet! Do you have a good recipe to share?
Eric Balcom says
no but i saw a post for it looks awesome so i looked up lumberjack cake and there it was but not allowed to use the oven .lol
Carol Sharman says
How much and what type of cheese?
The Kitchen Magpie says
1 cup cheddar cheese, edited in!
Tina Kreuer says
I just used the last 2 when it was snowing!! Made wonderful Bean Soup!! My mom taught me to do this.
Teri Nikolai says
Yummy
The Kitchen Magpie says
Hahah NO it shows my insanity that we had ham here already! We had my mom and dad over lol. And the ham bone was used. Now the Christmas ham bone? In my Edmonton freezer!
Pamela Marriott says
You packed a ham bone from home. That’s dedication
Lol
The Kitchen Magpie says
Always nice to find kindred freezer hoarder spirits……
Arleigh Gladwin Stockwell says
Yes! That’s what happens, because you find the scary looking frosty bone, and you don’t remember which ham it was from – do you use it, or do you end up making a pot of soup that tastes like freezer?! So far I’ve been lucky!
Keith Bramley says
Lol… Reminds me when I cleaned out my grandparents freezer in 1991… And found at the bottom… Stuff from 1970! Honestly, dated 3 yrs before I was born!
The Kitchen Magpie says
Keith Bramley I probably have some in my freezer from Christmas 2007. I’m good.
The Kitchen Magpie says
I knew it! I knew it wasn’t just me Arleigh Gladwin Stockwell! Some of those ham bones are dug out and thrown out at Easter…when we have the next ham!
Keith Bramley says
I have more hambones than anyone could ever need… Give me a shout if you need some!
Arleigh Gladwin Stockwell says
Hand is going up. There’s always one floating around in the freezer somewhere.