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You are here: Home / Recipes and Cooking Tips / What to Do with Leftover Ham

What to Do with Leftover Ham

December 23, 2012 by Alea Milham 6 Comments

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Are you wondering what to do with leftover ham? Here are some of my favorite leftover ham recipes.

How to use up leftover ham

I usually serve a ham on Christmas eve. We go to a candlelight service and then come home for dinner. The ham is easy to serve shortly after we arrive home since it is precooked and I can keep it warm in a large slow cooker.  But even small hams leave us with leftovers. I thought I would share some of the ways that I will be using up the leftover ham.

What to Do with Leftover Ham

Besides living on sandwiches for days, there are lots of ways to use up leftover ham. But first, if you are not going to be able to use up all of the leftover ham within 5 days, then freeze it so it doesn’t go bad.

How to Freeze Cooked Ham

Ham freezes well. I stretch the leftovers over several weeks, by freezing the ham in usable portions and then thawing it as needed. Don’t freeze your ham in one large chunk. Instead, dice it, cube it, or cut it into thin slivers – whatever your favorite ham recipes call for it. Then place the cut ham in a freezable plastic bag or a freezer-safe container. The ham will keep in the freezer for up to 3 months.

How to Freeze a Ham Bone

The ham bone can be used to add flavor to soups, so don’t toss it out once you remove the meat from the bone. If you don’t have time to make soup or cook beans within a few days of serving the ham, wrap the bone in plastic or butcher paper, then put it inside a freezer bag, and place it in the freezer to use at a later time. The ham bone will keep for 3 – 4 months in the freezer. You will find some recipes using a ham bone below the leftover ham recipes.

Leftover Ham Recipes

Here are delicious ideas for what to make with leftover ham!

Roasted Potato and Ham Casserole

Ham Primavera

Sweet and Sour Ham

Layered Ham Skillet

Rice Crusted Quich

Mini Frittatas with Ham and Cheese

Scalloped Potatoes with Ham and Peas

Scalloped Sweet Potatoes with Ham

More Leftover Ham Recipes

Using leftover ham in recipes from the cookbook Prep-Ahead Meals from Scratch

Recipes Using Ham from Prep-Ahead Meals from Scratch:

If you have my cookbook, Prep-Ahead Meals from Scratch, you can use leftover ham to make these recipes from the cookbook:

  • Skillet Mac & Cheese with Ham and Broccoli p. 50
  • Skillet Scalloped Potatoes with Ham and Peas p. 54
  • White Bean and Ham Soup with Spinach p.60
  • Potato, Ham, and Corn Chowder p. 63
  • Ham and Cauliflower Casserole p. 64
  • Ham and Spinach Waffle Quesadillas p. 72

Soup Recipe Using a Ham bone

Ham Bone Soup Recipes

A ham bone adds so much flavor to soups. You can also add flavor to beans by adding a ham bone to dried beans and cooking the beans as you normally would. Just like with soup, you remove the bone before serving.

Pink Bean and Ham Soup

Black Bean and Ham Soup

Split Pea Soup

How do you use up leftover ham?

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About Alea Milham

Alea Milham is the owner of Premeditated Leftovers and the author of Prep-Ahead Meals from Scatch. She shares her tips for saving money and time while reducing waste in her home. Her favorite hobby, gardening, is a frugal source of organic produce for her recipes. She believes it is possible to live fully and eat well while spending less.

Comments

  1. Tommye says

    December 19, 2016 at 6:30 am

    I make what we call ham scramble. Cut ham in bitesized pieces and brown in a little oil. Add cooked pasta of any vatiety.when pasta is browned add two or three eggs and stir till done

    Reply
    • Alea Milham says

      December 19, 2016 at 9:03 am

      Sounds delicious!

      Reply
  2. Pauline Wiles says

    December 24, 2012 at 7:23 am

    I love leftover ham. I’d probably be happy to nibble on it as-is. Otherwise, throwing some in a risotto always works. A pot pie would be great, too. Happy Christmas!

    Reply
    • Alea says

      December 26, 2012 at 10:08 pm

      I can eat leftover ham as-is too. My oldest son really doesn’t like to eat the same thing, so I am always trying to rework leftovers to create new variations for him. I love the idea of leftover ham in a pot pie – something I have never tried before.

      Reply
  3. Marcy says

    December 24, 2012 at 6:27 am

    I usually make a soup that I call “ugly soup” with the ham bone, leftover ham, and just about any veggies that are leftover too. The first time I made it, the mashed butternut squash and the chopped spinach combined into a very ugly color. It was delicious though. I’ve learned how to make it prettier, but the name stuck.

    Reply
    • Alea says

      December 26, 2012 at 10:04 pm

      I love the name! We make a soup we call “rotting vegetable soup” because the first time I made it I was trying to use up vegetables before they went bad.

      Reply

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Welcome. I'm Alea!

On Premeditated Leftovers I share simple recipes made with whole foods, practical shopping tips, time saving techniques, and meal planning strategies. I also share tips for minimizing food waste, so more of the food that is purchased ends up on the table.

While volunteering as a budget counselor, I realized that food is the element of most people’s budgets where they have the greatest control. I set out to develop low-cost recipes from scratch to prove it’s possible to create delicious meals on a limited budget. Eating well while spending less is about more than just creating recipes using inexpensive ingredients; it’s about creatively combining ingredients so you don’t feel deprived and are inspired to stick to your budget.

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