My Cream of Potato and Ham Soup – Plus my Soup Ready Freezer Shortcut

Cream of potato and ham soup recipe. I enjoy enough soup around here that I’ve started making myself a freezer shortcut to save time. It seems its always after a long day at work in the winter that I crave a bowl of soup when I finally get home. But soup can be really time consuming. My shortcut is bags of my “soup starter” of already chopped up vegetables in the freezer. You guys already know I keep quarts of homemade poultry stock in my freezer at all times but sometimes I want a big bowl of cream of potatoes and ham!

JUMP TO RECIPE

Here’s how I make my shortcut bags of “soup ready” vegetables that I keep in the freezer. I’m pretty sure this shortcut was born literally because I always have way more celery than I need for just one recipe… First, I finely chop up fresh celery, onions and carrots and fill quart size freezer bags with equal amounts of each. (Its about four cups.) I generally have at least a couple of my soup ready bags in the freezer at any one time. (Of course you can include any veggies you like!)

To start my cream of potato and ham soup recipe I cut up my ham and potatoes. This recipe is great for using up leftover ham such as after thanksgiving or a holiday etc. but otherwise I get these little smoked hams and 1/2 of one of them is about right. I like using red potatoes and only peel them about 3/4s of the way for a little texture.

You can see I have about the same amount of potatoes as vegetables. The bag of vegetables goes in first along with the stick of butter and then I top it with the chopped ham, then the potatoes and then the seasonings. I do not stir it! I cook it on low, covered, until everything is cooked through. (I leave it alone so the potatoes stay on top and steam.)

You need to keep an eye on your heat level here so the veggies on the bottom don’t burn before the potatoes are fully cooked. What’s wonderful about this combination cooking all together is it really makes a ham stock that steams flavor into everything. But you have to keep a lid on it.

(Do you like my weird silicone lid? I don’t know what possessed me to buy a pack of these but I really like them and they take up a lot less room in the cabinet.) With everything cooked through remove the lid and use a potato masher to break down some of the potatoes.

Mash slowly, you don’t want mashed potatoes but you definitely want them broken down. Be cautious here while adding the cream to make as thick (or thin) of a soup as you prefer. I ended up using about a cup of cream all together. All in cooking time is only about 30 minutes.

For being so simple this is incredibly good.

I generally serve this with garlic toast or grilled cheese sandwiches for dipping. Everyone likes croutons and shredded cheese on top though I usually don’t add anything to mine. To take this recipe to an entirely more epic level you can start with ham hocks, boil them until the meat falls off the bone and then add in the rest of your ingredients to cook in the resulting glorious broth.

You can also do yourself a real service and just dump all of these ingredients in a crock pot set on low in the morning when you head to work. It will be divine 8 hours later when you get home.

Cream of Potato and Ham Soup

• 4Cups equal parts chopped celery, onion and carrot
• 3Cups chopped smoked ham
• 4Cups chopped potatoes
• 1Stick butter
• 1Tbls black pepper
• 1Tbls parsley
• 1Tbls salt
• Heavy cream

In a large pot add in your celery, onion, carrot and stick of butter. Add the ham on top of it and then the potatoes on top of the ham, cover with seasonings. Do not stir. Cook on low covered until the potatoes are done. Using a potato masher drizzle in cream until soup is the desired consistency.

Cream of Potato and Ham Soup

• 4Cups equal parts fresh chopped celery, onion and carrot
• 3Cups chopped smoked ham
• 4Cups chopped potatoes
• 1Stick butter
• 1Tbls black pepper
• 1Tbls parsley
• 1Tbls salt
• Heavy cream

In a large pot add in your celery, onion, carrot and stick of butter. Add the ham on top of it and then the potatoes on top of the ham, cover with seasonings. Do not stir. Cook on low covered until the potatoes are done. Using a potato masher drizzle in cream until soup is the desired consistency.