3 Great Recipes Using Leftover Ham

This past Christmas my daughter requested that we have ham for Christmas dinner. I was happy to honor her request and we had a delicious dinner of baked ham, sweet potato souffle (yum!), and green beans. This year there were only 5 of us for Christmas dinner so we had a lot of leftover ham. I sliced off some and stored it in a ziploc freezer bag for a future meal, but I still had a lot of ham left. So I had myself a little "leftover ham festival" and experimented with a few recipes. I made split pea soup with ham (and stored lots of that in the freezer for a future winter dinner), corn chowder with ham, and quiche with ham and gruyere. The recipes are below. The split pea soup was my favorite, but all were good. I highly recommend using leftovers in recipes and would love for you to share any of your favorite recipes which take advantage of leftovers.

SPLIT PEA SOUP WITH HAM

1 leftover ham bone with several inches of ham remaining on the bone

2 lbs dried split peas*, rinsed

4 cups chicken broth

10 cups water

2 onions, chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 carrots, peeled and chopped

2 baking potatoes, peeled and diced

salt and pepper to taste

olive oil

• Coat the bottom of a large stock pot with olive oil and heat over medium-high heat.
• Cook the onion and garlic in the oil for a few minutes, until softened.
• Stir in the carrots and potatoes.
• Add the dried peas and ham bone.
• Add the chicken broth and water.
• Bring to a boil.
• Lower heat and cover.
• Simmer for two hours.
• Remove the ham bone from the soup. Cut off the ham and chop into bite-sized pieces.
• Return the ham to the soup.
• The soup should have a fairly smooth, yet chunky consistency. If you prefer a completely smooth consistency, put the soup through the blender in batches (either before or after you add the ham, depending on your preference).
• This recipe yields a large amount of soup, but it freezes very well if you won’t be eating it all in one sitting.

*I like Goya brand the best.

CORN CHOWDER WITH HAM

2 cans (15 ounce) cream-style corn

3 cups chicken broth

1 cup chopped cooked ham

1 cup 2% milk

• Mix the corn, chicken broth, and ham in a 3 quart saucepan over medium heat.
• Stir occasionally.
• Stir in the milk and heat through.

Serves 6.

HAM AND GRUYERE QUICHE

1 prepared refrigerated pie crust*

1 cup cooked ham, chopped

4 large eggs

2 cups heavy cream

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup Gruyere cheese**, shredded

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
• Unroll pie crust into a 9 inch pie plate.
• Spread ham on the bottom of the prepared pie crust.
• In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, cream, and salt.
• Stir in cheese.
• Pour cream mixture over ham.
• Bake 15 minutes at 425 degrees.
• Lower oven temperature to 325 degrees.
• Bake for 35 minutes longer, or until knife inserted in center comes out clean.

Serves 6.

*I like Pillsbury brand the best.

**can substitute swiss or cheddar