Creamy Ham Bone Soup with Beans

This is a Ham Bone Soup made using the slow cooker which is the most effortless way to cook leftover ham bone. Set, forget, fall apart meat, flavour infused soup!

You’ll love the creamy broth (but no cream!), and how the tender beans absorb the flavour. Leave some of the ham tender and juicy, pan fry some to make it crispy. It’s the best of both worlds!

Leftover Ham Bone Soup!

Ham bones are highly coveted in my circle . Each year, I gather as many as I can and stash them in my deep freezer.

The Christmas just gone, I went one step further and gifted several Glazed Hams under the guise of being a thoughtful friend.

In truth, those gifts came with the condition that I get the ham bone!! 😂 I’m completely shameless.

So hopefully, some of you stashed away your leftover ham bone in the freezer, just waiting for the right time to use it. For those that didn’t, don’t worry – this can be made with a store bought ham bone! 😇 (Here’s a photo comparison of store bought and leftover ham)

Not your usual ham bone soup

You’re probably used to seeing ham bone soups with a clear broth or sometimes, a tomato based broth. I really tried to get excited about those versions (and maybe it’s something that comes with maturity? 🤷🏻‍♀️) but I just wanted something more.

Something different.

This creamy (yet cream-less) Ham Bone Soup with crispy golden ham bits is my idea of different. 🙂

The leftover ham bone

Here’s one of the ham bones that boomeranged back to me after gifting it. My friend was kind enough to leave plenty of ham on it. It weighed 1.1 kg / 2.2lb.

But if yours has been picked clean, don’t worry! You’ll still extract plenty of flavour from the bone and non-edible parts of the ham. Just purchase some extra ham meat to toss into the soup – or bulk up on more veggies instead!

How to make this creamy Ham Bone Soup

This Ham Bone Soup has a few more steps than those “chuck it all in the slow cooker” soups – but the extra steps are worth it:

1. Slow cook dried beans with aromatics and the ham bone – the ham bone flavours the water to create the soup broth, the ham meat becomes “fall apart tender” and the beans cook;

2. Pan fry shredded ham until golden. This little extra step you don’t usually see is 100% worth it because golden crispiness = more flavour and texture!

3. Make soup thickening base in the same pan by mixing milk with cornflour/cornstarch. This step also gets all that flavour from frying the ham bits stuck on the bottom of the skillet into the soup broth = even more flavour.

See? I promised this ham bone soup was a step above the usual! More and more incredible flavour in every step!!

Slow cook ham bone with dried beans

The carrot and celery that was used to flavour the ham broth is pretty soft after 8 hours of slow cooking but in the spirit of this leftover recipe, I like to chop it up and throw it back into the soup.

Make soup thickening base & add vegetables

This is the step where we make a cornflour thickened “sludge” which is used to make the ham bone broth nice and creamy. I also like to get more vegetables into the soup by starting off by sautéing onion, carrots and celery.

And here’s what you end up with:

✅ Rich, creamy broth, fully loaded with incredible depth of flavour – and we’ve used no cream!

✅ Crispy ham bits – the crowning glory

✅ Creamy soft beans that have absorbed incredible flavour while slow cooking

✅ Plenty of vegetables so this is a great well rounded one-bowl meal

Now, I know beans are a starch so adding a side of bread for dunking might be considered carb overkill…. but who ever says no to soup dunkers??

Soup Dunkers

Quick Cheesy Garlic Bread

World’s Easiest Yeast Bread recipe – Artisan, NO KNEAD crusty bread

Sandwich Bread WITHOUT yeast

Better-Than-Dominos Garlic Bread

World’s best No Yeast Bread – Irish Soda Bread

Savoury Cheese Muffins

Breads

The nice thing about this recipe is that you can make it in stages. I made it a few times after Christmas 2018 and kept getting distracted mid-cook by important things like meeting friends at the beach, urgent Yum Cha outings etc.

So other than stopping midway through the slow cooking of the ham bone, you can pretty much stop at any point in this recipe, then take it up again when it suits.

End result was always just as good!! ~ Nagi x

PS The other truly great use of leftover ham bone – Chinese Ham Bone Congee. 3 Ingredient magic!

Slow Cooker Ham Bone Soup
Watch How to Make It

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Slow Cooker Ham Bone Soup with Beans

Author: Nagi

Main, Soup

Western

5 from 25 votes

Servings6

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Recipe video above. This is a Ham Bone Soup made using the slow cooker which is the most effortless way to cook leftover ham bone. Set, forget, fall apart meat, flavour infused soup!

You'll love the creamy broth (but no cream!) and tender beans that absorb the flavour. Leave some of the ham tender and juicy, pan fry some to make it crispy. It's the best of both worlds!

Ingredients

CupsMetric

Homemade Ham Broth:

• ▢ 1.2kg / 2.4lb leftover ham bone OR store bought ham hock / meaty bone (Note 1)
• ▢ 2 carrots , peeled cut into 3 chunks
• ▢ 1 celery stalk , cut into chunks
• ▢ 2 garlic cloves , minced
• ▢ 3 sprigs thyme or 1/2 tsp dried thyme
• ▢ 1.5 - 2 cups dried white beans , no need to soak (Note 2)
• ▢ 2 litres / 2 quarts water (8 cups)

Ham Bone Soup:

• ▢ 2 tbsp (30g) butter or oil
• ▢ 1 onion , chopped
• ▢ 2 garlic cloves , minced
• ▢ 3 celery ribs , chopped
• ▢ 2 carrots , chopped
• ▢ 2 cups milk , any fat %
• ▢ 2 tsp Vegeta or other stock powder (Note 3)
• ▢ 60 g / 2 oz baby spinach (Note 4)

Thickening

• ▢ 1/2 cup extra milk , any fat %
• ▢ 1/3 cup cornflour / cornstarch

Instructions

Ham Broth:

• Place the Ham Broth ingredients in the slow cooker. Slow cook for 8 hours on low, or 4 hours on high.
• Remove ham bone. Shred meat and discard bone. Return half the ham to the slow cooker (remainder is pan fried).
• Discard thyme sprig.
• Remove then chop carrot and celery, return to slow cooker.

Crispy Ham:

• Melt 1 tbsp butter in a skillet over medium high heat. Add half the ham and cook until golden and crispy.
• Transfer most to slow cooker - hold back a few for garnish.

Soup Broth:

• In the same skillet, melt remaining butter. Add onion and garlic, cook 1 minute.
• Add celery and carrot, cook for 3 minutes until soft.
  
• Add 2 cups milk, stir.

Soup Thickener:

• Mix cornflour and extra Milk. While stirring, pour into skillet. Mixture will thicken quickly.
• Once very thick and paste-like, scrape into slow cooker.

Finish Soup:

• Add Vegeta into slow cooker. Stir to dissolve paste.
• Add spinach, push down into liquid.
• Slow cook 30 minutes on low or 20 minutes on high until spinach is wilted and broth is heated and slightly thickened.
• Serve garnished with crispy ham and a sprinkle of parsley, if desired!

Recipe Notes:

1. Leftover Ham Bone - If your ham is looking a bit skimpy, you might want to buy some ham to dice up and throw into the soup. If the bone won't fit into your slow cooker, try break the knuckles with your hands or take it to your friendly butcher to cut in half (or dig out your saw). Can also use store bought ham bone / hock.

2. White beans - More beans = chunkier soup. Great northern, cannellini, navy. No need to soak because we're using the slow cooker.

Canned beans will also work but dried is better because it absorbs more flavour as it cooks and you can control the texture better. Stir drained canned beans into the soup when you add the shredded ham back in. May need extra cornflour to thicken broth (as dried beans soak up more liquid than canned)

3. Vegeta is a type of stock powder sold in supermarkets. Vegetable or chicken stock powders will also work nicely here, or crumble in a bouillon cube.

4. Greens - about 2 to 3 handfuls. Or use chopped normal spinach, silverbeet or kale.

5. General:
- Soup colour will differ depending on your ham bone. More skin (leathery brown stuff) = browner broth (and more flavour) = off white soup. Less skin = whiter soup.
- Soup is not intended to be a really thick soup as I find it makes it too heavy (it's quite rich). But if you want a thicker broth, simply add more cornflour/cornstarch mixed with equal amount of water/milk - add a bit at a time, as soup heats it will thicken.

6. Storage - store in fridge for 3 to 4 days. If you freeze, cornflour will lose it's thickening power so you'll need to add more when reheating to re-thicken soup (see Note 5). Works perfectly, I tried it.

7. Nutrition is a guide only. It's virtually impossible for a non-scientist to calculate the nutrition in the ham bone broth, I've done my best!

Nutrition Information:

Calories: 352cal (18%)Carbohydrates: 44g (15%)Protein: 21g (42%)Fat: 10g (15%)Saturated Fat: 5g (31%)Cholesterol: 38mg (13%)Sodium: 574mg (25%)Potassium: 1139mg (33%)Fiber: 13g (54%)Sugar: 9g (10%)Vitamin A: 8130IU (163%)Vitamin C: 9.9mg (12%)Calcium: 232mg (23%)Iron: 4.6mg (26%)

Keywords: ham and bean soup, ham bone soup

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