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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 winter’s 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 don’t 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 it’s 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 won’t 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.
I’ve written 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 they’re 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, sauté carrots, celery, and onion until softened, 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, sauté carrots, celery, and onion until softened, 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 sauté function on your Instant Pot, heat olive oil until shimmering. Sauté 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 sliced (2-3 carrots)
- 1 cup celery sliced (2-3 ribs)
- 1 large onion 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. Sauté 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. Sauté 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 Sauté button on your Instant Pot and heat olive oil until shimmering. Sauté 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.
Can I freeze this once it is cooked? Just two of us at home, but I have enough leftover ham to do full recipe!
Yes – you can absolutely freeze leftover soup! It’s a great idea. I suggest thawing overnight in the refrigerator, or if you freeze individual portions, you can defrost those in the microwave. Thank you! – Meggan
Very good recipe for that chunk of ham that’s been hiding in the back of my freezer. Only used about a cup of onions which was fine for my husband and me. Very yummy!
I’m glad you liked it, thank you Denise! -Meggan
OMG this is an amazing recipe. I had boiled my ham bone before finding this recipe so used it instead of the chicken broth and water. My ham wasn’t salty so did have to add salt and a couple chicken bullion cubes. It was soooo tasty, my husband and I looked forward to the leftovers for a couple days. lol
Of course it’s even more tasty the next day.
Yum!
I’m glad it worked out! I’m glad you both enjoyed it! – Meggan
What a delicious and easy soup! I included a few slices of chopped up bacon that I had in the fridge. I will definitely add this recipe to my soup rotation. Thanks!
You’re so welcome, Barb! I’m so happy you love it! – Meggan
Excellent! I was looking for a soup to use the ham bone from Christmas Eve. I dislike Split Pea and wasn’t wowed by Ham & Potato, last year. I followed your recipe fully except I didn’t have celery and I used fresh garlic (4 cloves).
Amazing!
Thank You.
You’re so welcome! I’m so happy you loved it! Hope you had a happy new year! – Meggan
My go-to after holiday soup recipe. Easy, healthy, and super yummy. I tend to prefer red lentils to the brown/green ones, but it really makes no difference. You won’t find an easier recipe out there. PRINT and PREPARE NOW 🙂
Thank you so much, Jay! Take care! – Meggan
Delicious, only thing I did different was add spinach near the end.
Must say though, a three quart pan is too Small, go five quart.
The flavours in this soup are so good!! I had canned lentils and cooked ham so it came together very quickly! Great weeknight dinner that the whole fam enjoyed.
Love the flavors! Hubby likes barley so added a quarter cup. Shared it to piinterest and will use this recipe again. Thank you
Thank you so much, Gigi! So happy you loved it! Thank you for the share! – Meggan
Made a big batch with turkey broth after thanksgiving and we couldn’t get enough!! Definitely keeping this on rotation, thanks for the recipe!
You’re welcome, Lisa! Take care! – Meggan
My husband has been wanting lentil soup for quite some time. Since I had left over ham & ham bone from Easter, this was a good time to make it. This is a very good recipe & it will be the only lentil soup recipe that I will use. My husband raved about it through the whole meal. The only thing I did different is add some yellow potatoes, also left over from Easter & what little spinach I had left over. This soup is so good. Can’t wait to have the leftovers tonight.
Hi Janet! I’m so glad you and your husband loved it! Potatoes sound like a great addition! – Meggan
Great flavor! This recipe worked very well as written. I’ll definitely make it again.
Thanks Nan! – Meggan
Why would you use fresh mirepoix, and garlic powder…why not a few cloves of fresh garlic?
Hi there, that’s just how I like this recipe! Fell free to substitute with fresh garlic if you need. – Meggan
This was so delicious! I followed the instant pot recipe and it did not disappoint!
Thanks Tiffany, glad you liked it! – Meggan
Turned out great! Thank you!
This is absolutely the best lentil recipe ever and I am very picky! I don’t measure spices exactly and it is always perfect. Add a little extra veggies and onion because it is the only way I can get veggies down my kids. When my ham hocks don’t produce enough meat, I’ll add smoke turkey leg or wings. Tonight I’m fixing it with white beans because I didn’t have any lentils. You just can’t go wrong with this recipe! Thank you and thanks for your other yummy recipes. You are my go to!
Thank you so much Margaret, I am so glad you and your kids love this recipe! – Meggan
This was so easy, yummy and nutritious! What could be better? Thanks for posting!
Hi Shirley, you’re welcome! Glad to hear that you enjoyed this soup. – Meggan
This soup was so delicious. Thank you for sharing such a fabulous recipe.
This is one of the tastiest things I have ever made! I added just a little more ham than was left on the bone (not too much). The broth turned out so rich; I can’t stop eating this soup…delicious!!
This soup was so satisfying and delightfully flavored. I doubled the vegetables and added a chopped fennel bulb because fennel makes the flavor of lentils sing. Also used oregano because I didn’t have thyme. Results were delicious. Thank you for posting.
Wonderful winter soup! I had leftover fresh spinach so I threw that in during the middle of cooking-added a nice little something extra! Recommend this recipe highly!
Lentils aren’t my favorite but this soup makes them good!
I added chunks of pumpkin/squash (it’s a Cuban thing), and it was delish.
This turned out great. The right amount of seasoning, and the flavor of that hambone was wonderful. Thank you for an easy to follow recipe with stuff I have.
Chuck
Delicious.
This is an excellent recipe. It is so very easy, quick, and delicious. I followed the recipe as written and will continue in the same manner each time I make it in the future, which will be often!! I will continue to watch for your recipes! Thank You, Ellen
Love, love, love this!!!
We found this recipe in the spring, so I only made it twice in three weeks, but we love it so much that come fall and winter, this will be made often!!!
A few slight, ever so slight, variations – an extra cup of water and make sure to keep it covered while it summers; simmered for only half an hour so the lentils did not get mushy; I could only get a smoked ham hock, which was great; I got a ham steak and added ham to it after it was done.
I cannot tell you enough how much we live this recipe! Yummmmmmmm…
Wow! Thanks so much Shana! This makes my day! -Meggan
What is the serving size?
Made the soup following the stove top instructions and without substitutions except I didn’t have a ham bone but instead had about 3 cups of spiral ham left after the holiday. I used green French lentils and they kept their definition yet melted in the mouth. This is my new go-to recipe for left over ham.
Thank you so much Shellie! I’m glad you enjoyed it!
Hi Cynda, I’m sorry the cumin flavor was too much for you in this soup. Hope you are able to omit or adjust it next time you make this soup. Take care! – Meggan