… lol. I threw the chicken I bought yesterday into the crockpot, but that was going to be done too late for dinner. So, decided to cobble together a ham/potato soup out of leftovers. It turned out pretty good, but I think it is missing something to make it better. Here’s what I did:
diced 3 small onions, browned in butter with a bunch of garlic.
diced up my last 4 Idaho potatoes, added to pot, added water to cover, brought to a boil, then cooked til potatoes were tender.
Added 2 3/4 cups milk (end of a container).
Added about 2 cups diced ham (from one of those cheap Jewel holiday hams).
Added a little over 1 cup shredded cheddar (what was left in the bag).
Added salt, pepper, parsley, basil, and crushed red pepper to taste.
Now — I think if I make it again, I’d either add a little flour or mash up some extra potato and add to thicken it up. But it also seems like it needs a little something else. Kale? (I have spinach, but don’t think that would stand up…) Help me out, here. 
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I’d throw some broccoli in there
I would start it with a stick of butter, 1/2 cup flour – then add your milk to make it thicker.
Green onion goes along way to flavor this kind of soup!
wine ..always put that in everything…will cook out
I made a great ham and potato soup that I got from Allrecipes.com. Not particularly healthy but DELICIOUS. The tip is to cook a few strips of bacon in the pot first, shred the bacon, then add the onion, celery, carrot, ham and water directly to the pot (with the bacon grease still in it — I know, I groaned too — but it was the best soup I’ve ever made.) Here’s the link for the recipe – http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Delicious-Ham-and-Potato-Soup/Detail.aspx, just doctor it up with the bacon tip. It gave it a great flavor.
Don’t groan – this is what my fav Cooking Light potato soup recipe does! 2 slices good, center cut bacon does amazing things.
The potato soup I make is similar, but I do add about 1/4 cup of flour. Sometimes I’ll throw in some extra stuff…broccoli florets (tiny), juliene cut carrots, corn.
since you added potatoes, you could add a lil potato flakes to thicken it up a lil bit
It looks like it is pretty thick now. Maybe add a vegetable like what joy said. Broccoli or frozen peas. You can also put noodles in there too. I make somethin similar and I add noodles to it. Egg noodles or macaroni noodles.
I’d try putting in a cup of shredded carrots. My potato chowder recipe calls for them, and I’ve added ham or bacon to that in the past. Also, adding some bouillon cubes (chicken works fine even if you’re making ham soup) adds some flavor.
I use potato flakes or leftover mashers I have frozen to thicken my soup. I also boil the potatos in chicken broth for flavor and use evaporated milk to make it creamy without added water.
I say brocolli also. I made a ham/potato soup in the crockpot the other day and it had brocolli and also frozen corn and diced red pepper. The red pepper gave it a nice crunch and you could still taste the pepper even with the other ingredients. The pepper and brocolli also gave it a nice splash of color.
I like the idea of adding broccoli. Also, some recipes call for a 2 oz. jar of piementos or some sauteed red peppers.
I second what Amy suggested. making a roux before hand. I find it is the best way to thicken up your soups or stews.
I would add some chicken bouillon flavoring for added taste.
And believe it or not, frozen cauliflower….I didn’t think I’d like it when I first got a recipe for ham and potato chowder that called for it, but I LOVED it.
Potatoes are my favorite food, so I have many different potato soup recipe variations.
However, to thicken up any of my potato soup recipes I use POTATO FLAKES. It works great.
I was going to suggest broccoli too, and some stock or broth for flavor, but others beat me to it.
If your little ones turn their noses up at broccoli, try cauliflower. Cut it up into bite-sized pieces and boil it until soft. Then just mix it in along with the potatoes. The flowerettes will get nice and soft, and your family probably won’t even notice it’s in there. You can add cauliflower stems too, but they’re more fibrous and don’t get as soft, so they’re harder to disguise.
Speaking of cauliflower, I bought some of the boxes of Green Giant boxed veggies a few months ago when they were on a really good promotion. Recently we got the cauliflower-in-cheese-sauce variety out of the freezer and tried it, and my kiddo gave it a big thumbs up! She’s not a veggie-liker and won’t eat brocolli, but she loved the cauliflower variety. Wish I’d bought more.
How about some green chilies and corn.
Broccoli was the first thing that came to my mind, looks like I’m not alone in thinking that. You could also try turnips or beets…
Maybe a buillon cube?
Bacon. It adds so much flavor. Fry it up crispy. I add it to all my soups.
I think Brocolli would be yummy in that. You may want to use chicken broth rather than water or add some boullion (sp.?) for flavoe as well.
For thickening,you could make a roux with butter, milk and flour…add at the end just enough to thicken.
Whenever I make potato soup, I always puree some of it in the pot with a stick blender. You will get a thicker, more flavorful soup because all the ingredients are now blended. I would suggest doing this BEFORE you put the meat in, for obvious reasons. Very yummy looking soup!
I know that there were no recent special on…leeks, but that would add garlicky/oniony at the same time.
That was my first thought … love leek and potato soup!
So I do not cook well at all…….I’d add a gift card to a restaurant of your choice. : )
Wow! Thanks, everyone. I never made this before, just kind of looked at a few recipes on the internet and used what I had on hand.
(Deanna, if you ever see a leeks coupon, let me know! lol)
…how bout try: http://www.leeks.com/coupons hahaha wahnk wahnk
Looks yummy!!! I would add some garlic (roasted if you have it) and some cheddar cheese and sour cream when you serve it. Keep on cooking!!!
Thanks for the idea….I had left over ham and potatoes, as well. My family is having soup tonight! I used green onions (5 of them!) and chicken broth along with some butter, flour, pepper, the potatoes and ham. It is soooo yummy! Thanks for the inspiration, I was not sure what my plan for dinner was until I saw your post!
I made ham & potato soup after Christmas with our leftovers. Here is the recipe I found on allrecipes.com:
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Delicious-Ham-and-Potato-Soup/Detail.aspx
The only change I made was I used the Jewel organic broth (wild harvest maybe? has less than 10% sodium) instead of chicken bouillon granules. Delicious!
I also made a barbeque ham pineapple pizza if you are interested and have more ham leftovers. The only change I made with this recipe was I made the crust in my bread machine. http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Barbecue-Ham-Pizza/Detail.aspx
Add some pureed dried beans like red kidney beans or navy beans!!!
Because I am sure you have a stockpile like I do, this is the recipe that I tried and instead of bacon I used some of the free ham that we got from Jewel!! It uses cream cheese and chicken broth, which I still have lots of. It’s quick, too and I doubled it.http://thepioneerwoman.com/tasty-kitchen/recipes/soups/kerflope28099s-potato-soup/#cr