Nothing warms the heart better than a hearty soup!
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Is there a match made in heaven happier than ham and potato? Two of the staples at any holiday dinner, baked ham and mashed potatoes, are always separated by the plates and dishes they’re in; yet they always end up on the plate together! Ham and potato casserole is a delicious option to salvage your holiday leftovers, but sometimes, you just want to experience this beautiful union on healthier terms!
That’s where we come in!
Ham and potato soup brings these star-crossed lovers of flavor together at last in a delicious and hearty soup that’ll warm you to your core! With the marvelous mixture of meat and a medley of vegetables, you’ll feel invigorated and emboldened by the everyone’s favorite affair of meat and potatoes!
Is Ham and Potato Soup Healthy?
Ham and potato soup is a hearty stew with big chunks of potato and a splendid mixture of vegetables, giving you wholesome goodness like iron, sodium, and fiber! If you’re looking to reach that meat-and-potatoes flavor without breaking the vegan edge, however, I cannot recommend soy-based bacon bits any higher! If you’re worried about adhering to keto-focused dietary needs, for which potatoes often don’t fit, try a lower-carb option like Korean radish or sweet potato to get that familiar bite and all the root vegetable goodness without our recommended family of spuds.
If ham and potatoes taste so good together, why aren’t they paired more often?
There’s a reason that “meat and potatoes” is a saying. Ham and potatoes are flavors that are phenomenal together, always showing up on the plate in dollops of their own respective dishes. The sweet, salty, fatty ham flavors appeal where potatoes contribute a subtlety, making each meld into the other wonderfully – but, then, why is it there are so few recipes utilizing both?
When you look up ham and potato dishes, you might be disappointed to find a hundred variants of the same ham and potato leftover casserole attempting to revive holiday remains by combining and baking them. While it certainly does the trick to make a flavorful dish, that surely can’t be everything you can do with potatoes and ham! These flavors melt into one another so wonderfully, always side by side but never together! It’s a tragedy…
…unless!
FoodFaithFitness isn’t satisfied serving up sausages next to hashbrowns (though we do have recipes for both!), no! We want our destined dinner duo in the same bowl like in our cajun potato soup! We want satisfying and scrumptious servings like bacon-wrapped baked potatoes! We simply can’t hold ourselves back from uniting our uncompromising love for ham and potatoes into ultimate meals!
INGREDIENTS
- 1/3 cup unsalted butter
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 1 cup carrot, peeled and diced
- 1/2 cup celery, diced
- 3 cups potatoes, peeled and diced
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 1/2 cups cooked ham, diced
- 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 cups low sodium chicken stock
- 2 teaspoons chicken bouillon
- 3 cups milk (whole or 2%)
- Salt to taste
- Fresh cracked black pepper
INSTRUCTIONS
Sauté Veggies
Melt butter and cook onion, carrots, and celery until softened.
Add Ham & Potatoes
Mix in ham and potatoes, then garlic, cooking until fragrant.
Thicken with Flour
Stir in flour and cook to prepare the soup base.
Simmer
Add chicken stock and bouillon, then boil until potatoes are tender.
Creamy Texture
Lower heat, add milk and stir until the soup thickens.
Season
Taste and season with salt and pepper as desired.
Serve
Enjoy the warm, hearty soup.
Devour!
FAQs & Tips
Soup always prepares easily ahead of time and stores well in the fridge! Always make sure you boil your soup for longer than 5 minutes to ensure total safety upon reheating!
Ham has its own flavor profile, whether honey-baked or otherwise, that isn’t quite matched by other cuts of pork; however, if you’re looking to replace ham for anything, you’re far more likely to have bacon on hand! Just remember that bacon will add more salt to the recipe so be cautious with your contributions.
We don’t specify what kind of potatoes to use in our recipe, but you’re free to use whichever you like! Russet potatoes will break down a little more in the stock and make it good and creamy! Red potatoes will hold their own and have more bite and chew with each quarter! Yukon Gold will put you square between the perks of russet and red potatoes!
We’ve tried to mitigate the sodium content of our recipe as much as possible by recommending unsalted butter and low-sodium soup stock but, sometimes, even that isn’t enough to offset your salt content. Ham and bacon both add a lot of sodium to the soup and can’t exactly be taken out of the meats before adding – so your best option is to find ham and bacon that are distinctly low-sodium (usually as marked on their packaging).
If your soup is too salty, the only option you have is to add more water and chicken stock until it’s tolerable. If your soup is too peppered, add a pinch of sugar to the broth to counteract it – but not too much, or else you get a sweet soup!
Serving Suggestions
Ham and potatoes go so well together, you might not even need something to eat it with; but that doesn’t mean you don’t want a little something on the side! Try pairing ham and potato soup with delicious greens like roasted leeks (perfect for dipping!) or broccoli and cauliflower! If you don’t have anything fresh on hand, you can hear from us why we love frozen vegetables for side dish recipes!
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup unsalted butter
- 1 onion finely chopped
- 1 cup carrot peeled and diced
- 1/2 cup celery diced
- 3 cups potatoes peeled and diced
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 1 1/2 cups cooked ham diced
- 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 cups low sodium chicken stock
- 2 teaspoons chicken bouillon
- 3 cups milk whole or 2%
- Salt to taste
- Fresh cracked black pepper
Instructions
- Melt butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add onion, carrots, and celery, cooking until they begin to soften, about 4 minutes.
- Incorporate the ham and potatoes into the pot and cook for 2 minutes. Follow with garlic and cook until aromatic, roughly 30 seconds.
- Sprinkle in the flour, stirring it through the ingredients, and cook for 2 minutes to remove the raw flour taste.
- Pour in the chicken stock and add bouillon. Stir well and bring the mixture to a boil. Cook until the potatoes are just fork-tender, about 10-12 minutes.
- Turn the heat down to medium-low, add the milk, and continue stirring until the soup thickens, approximately 5 minutes.
- Season the soup with salt and pepper to taste. Adjust the seasoning as needed.
- Serve the soup warm and enjoy a comforting meal. DEVOUR!
Nutrition Info:
Recipes written and produced on Food Faith Fitness are for informational purposes only.
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