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This Ham and Lentil Soup recipe is perfect for chilly weather and cooks up in about an hour; all you need is a loaf of French bread for a cozy winterโs feast. Put your leftover ham to work and make it on the stove, in a pressure cooker, or in your crockpot!
Where can I find a ham bone?
If you donโt have a leftover ham bone from the holidays, go to your butcher and ask for a smoked ham hock or a ham shank.
A ham hock may be a little less meaty, but it will work just fine and still give the soup incredible flavor.
Technically, the hock is the end of a smoked ham where the foot is attached to the hog’s leg.
You could also ask for a ham shank. The shank is from a lower portion of the leg, therefore itโs meatier than the hock.
What kind of lentils for hambone soup?
I recommend any variety of whole lentils for this recipe. Look for a green or brown lentil for making ham and lentil soup.
Red and yellow split lentils will break down into mush, and wonโt add any texture to the soup.
How do you cook lentils?
Compared to other dried legumes, lentils are easy to prepare. There is no need to presoak lentils, and they take much less time to cook than chickpeas or beans.
Iโve writtenย about how to cook lentils, if you care to explore this easygoing member of the pulse family; I love adding cooked lentils to almost everything!
For making hambone and lentil soup, cooking lentils is just a matter of adding the rinsed lentils to the cooking liquid and simmering until theyโre tender. Pre-rinsing is super important, to remove any dust or grit, and to get rid of any pebbles that may have snuck in with the lentils.
All the ways to make Ham and Lentil Soup:
On the stovetop, in the crockpot, or in a modern pressure cooker, I’ve got you covered! Keep reading.
How to make Ham and Lentil Soup in a Dutch oven on the stove:
- Heat olive oil in the Dutch oven over medium-high heat until shimmering.
- Next, sautรฉ carrots, celery, and onion until softened,ย about 5 minutes.
- Stir in the broth, water, lentils, ham bone, spices, and bay leaf. Bring to a boil then simmer for 45 minutes, until lentils and ham are tender.
- When the lentils are cooked, remove the hambone and the bay leaf. Cut the extra ham off of the bone, chop it up, and return it to the pot along with any additional ham you might be using.
- Finally, season the soup to your taste with salt and pepper and garnish with parsley, if desired.
How to make Ham and Lentil Soup in a slow cooker:
- Heat olive oil in a pan or Dutch oven over medium-high heat until shimmering.
- Next, sautรฉ carrots, celery, and onion until softened,ย about 5 minutes.
- Stir in broth, water, lentils, ham bone, spices, and bay leaf. Bring to a boil.
- Pour into slow cooker and cook on HIGH setting for 3 to 4 hours, or LOW for 6 to 8 hours.
- When the lentils are cooked, remove the hambone and the bay leaf. Cut the extra ham off of the bone, chop it up, and return it to the pot along with any additional ham you might be using.
- Finally, season the soup to your taste with salt and pepper and garnish with parsley, if desired.
How to make Ham and Lentil Soup in an Instant Pot:
- Using the sautรฉ function on your Instant Pot, heat olive oil until shimmering. Sautรฉ carrots, celery, and onion until softened and translucent, about 5 minutes.
- Next, stir in broth, water, lentils, ham bone, spices, and bay leaf.
- Secure the lid, close the pressure valve, and cook at high pressure for 35 minutes.
- Allow the pressure to release naturally. Remove ham bone and bay leaf. Chop ham from bone and return to Instant Pot, along with any extra ham you might be using.
- Season to taste with salt and pepper and garnish with parsley if desired.
Can you freeze Ham and Lentil Soup?
Since the leftovers are even better the next day, make a big double batch or make the soup a day in advance. And yes, you can freeze the lentil soup in portions for another meal when time is short.
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Ham and Lentil Soup
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 cup carrots peeled and sliced (2-3 carrots)
- 1 cup celery sliced (2-3 ribs)
- 1 large onion peeled and chopped (2 cups)
- 4 cups chicken broth
- 4 cups water
- 1 pound dried lentils picked over, rinsed, stones discarded
- 1 meaty ham bone or ham hock
- 2 teaspoons garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 bay leaf
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- additional cooked ham chopped (optional)
- fresh parsley minced, for garnish (optional)
Instructions
To make on the stove:
- In a 3-quart saucepan or Dutch oven, heat olive oil over medium-high heat until shimmering. Sautรฉ carrots, celery, and onion until softened and translucent, about 5 minutes.
- Stir in broth, water, lentils, ham bone, garlic powder, cumin, paprika, thyme, and bay leaf. Bring to a boil. Simmer until lentils are tender, 45 minutes to 1 hour.
- Remove ham bone and bay leaf. Chop ham from bone and return to pot. Add additional leftover ham, if using, and cover until heated through, about 5 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper and garnish with parsley if desired.
To make in a slow cooker:
- In a 3-quart pan or Dutch oven, heat olive oil over medium-high heat until shimmering. Sautรฉ carrots, celery, and onion until softened and translucent, about 5 minutes.
- Stir in broth, water, lentils, ham bone, garlic powder, cumin, paprika, thyme, and bay leaf. Bring to a boil. Pour into slow cooker. Heat on HIGH for 3 to 4 hours, LOW for 6 to 8 hours, or until lentils are tender.
- Remove ham bone and bay leaf. Chop ham from bone and return to slow cooker. Add additional leftover ham, if using, and cover until heated through, about 5 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper and garnish with parsley if desired.
To make in an Instant Pot:
- Press the Sautรฉ button on your Instant Pot and heat olive oil until shimmering. Sautรฉ carrots, celery, and onion until softened and translucent, about 5 minutes.
- Stir in broth, water, lentils, ham bone, garlic powder, cumin, paprika, thyme, and bay leaf. Secure the lid, close the pressure valve, and cook at high pressure for 35 minutes.
- Allow the pressure to release naturally. Remove ham bone and bay leaf. Chop ham from bone and return to Instant Pot. Season to taste with salt and pepper and garnish with parsley if desired.
Recipe Video
Nutrition
Meggan Hill is a classically-trained chef and professional writer. Her meticulously-tested recipes and detailed tutorials bring confidence and success to home cooks everywhere. Meggan has been featured on NPR, HuffPost, FoxNews, LA Times, and more.
I have made this soup recipe twice, and it has been a big hit in my house. I used a 5-quart dutch oven to allow for extra room in the pot. I did make one modification to the recipe. I used a smoked turkey leg in place of the ham bone, and continued to follow the directions as written. I did have to add two extra cups of liquid; one stock and one water to keep the ratio consistent, given the thick consistency of the soup after simmering. I will definitely be making this recipe again in the future. Thank you for the recipe!
You’re welcome, Ray! Smoked turkey instead of ham sounds delicious! – Meggan
This was a hit with my hubby and son. I loved it too. I added just a shake or two of liquid smoke to intensify the smoky ham flavor and also threw in some fresh spinach that i needed to use up. Delicious. Thanks for sharing and I love that you included the nutrition info for those of us who log meals.
You’re welcome, Stacie! I’m glad you all enjoyed it! – Meggan
Why in the world don’t you have a Pinterest button? I don’t want recipes in my email because it’s too difficult then to get to my Pinterest where I save all my recipes.
Hi Sue, thanks for writing and I’m so sorry. I had one before on the site, but it caused issues. So for now if you’re on desktop, you can hover over any image in the post you should get a Pinterest button in the upper left hand corner. I’m working on something for mobile. So sorry again. Here’s the link to this recipe on Pinterest: https://pin.it/13fBdT73I. Thanks again! – Meggan
I made the recipe. I was surprised to see the quantity of lentils at 1 pound. I only had 3/4 of a pound left and used that.
I ended up with approximately 800 grams of lightly flavoured lentils and no liquid. The end result was a total solid. I have retained and frozen half of the mixture and I am planning on using the other half by adding liquid in a ratio of 1 measure of lentils to 3 measures of liquid. The taste was bland. So adjustments there will all have to be made as well.
I was not impressed with this recipe. Perhaps the use of “1 pound” of lentils in the recipe was a misprint.
Hi Kay, sorry it didn’t come out. It definitely shouldn’t have been solid, something was definitely not right with your batch. I appreciate you taking the time to write and share your feedback. I’m so sorry again. – Meggan
Having a soup turn out solid could be because of having the heat turned up too high. Also, being at high altitude can require more liquid. I adapted the recipe as well because I had about as many lentils as you did. It is no big deal to add more liquid as you cook. When I add more water I taste the broth to see if it tastes watery or not. If it is weak, I add boullion or Better than Broth to compensate and more spices as needed. I added about 2 cups of chopped kale as well as a little bit of delicata squash. I used smoked paprika. Finally, I didn’t have a ham bone, so added chopped ham pieces near the end of cooking. The resulting soup is delicious! I found the recipe to be quite good and will add it to my repertoire!
Flavour is great; I might just add a bit more garlic powder and maybe some turmeric for a flavour boost. I used the Instant Pot for this. I only cooked it 20 minutes on Pressure Cook since the ham I added was already cooked. Considering the 8c of liquid, the resulting soup was more of a stew – which was super. But if we wanted more of a soup, next time I’d add half the lentils. Thanks for the recipe!
You’re welcome, Lyn! Thank you for taking the time to write! – Meggan
Amazing flavor,! A big hit with the family! Will definitely make again.
Thanks, Anastasia! I’m so glad it was a hit! – Meggan
I made this tonight. It was the first time I’ve ever eaten lentils. They were delicious. My wife and I both agreed we liked them better than ham and navy bean soup. That is saying something because ham and navy bean soup is one of my favorites. Thanks for the reecipe!
You’re so welcome, Mick! (Ham and Navy Bean soup is also great, I have a recipe here if you would like to try it sometime!) Take care! – Meggan
Thank you Meggan! This is a delicious soup! And versatile too. I didn’t have carrots so I used sweet potato and added the last of some kale too.
You’re so welcome, Barbara! Those sound like delicious substitutes. – Meggan