On Thanksgiving, along with the turkey we also had ham on the menu. After leftovers were sent along the way and a couple of leftover ham meals, all that remained was the hambone. We needed a break from anything that had to do with ham so into the freezer it went. Fast forward a few weeks, in anticipation of the gang being here for Christmas and needing as much freezer space as we could get, it was time to use the hambone in some soup.
This was a create-as-I-go soup.
Put the hambone in a pot with some leftover chicken broth and bring it to a boil to flavor the broth. Let the broth cool, take the hambone out, remove the meat, and add back into the broth. I went through my pantry, freezer, and veggie bin to find whatever ingredients were available to put in the soup: an onion, 2 carrots, 2 stalks of celery, 6 baby Yukon gold potatoes, a can of rinsed cannellini beans, spinach, the rest of a bag of corn, thyme and bay leaves. Let everything come to a gentle boil and then simmer until veggies are tender. At first I didn't add any salt to the soup because of the ham and chicken broth but it did need a little bit of salt after tasting it.
The ham was a honey-baked ham and some of the sweetness made its way into the soup. A pleasant surprise.
Next up...turkey carcass soup!
I bought a small end "country ham" at the farmers market last weekend, in large part so I can have the bone to make bean soup with sometime soon.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds very good. Honey baked hams work really well in soups. I haven't done that in ages.
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