You can make split pea soup or bean soup. They are not creamed soups, but split pea seems creamy because the peas cook down pretty well. It takes quite a few hours to make these, so if you are thinking today, plan to eat very late! I usually start it in the crock pot in the morning and let it go all day. The ham bone eventually breaks down after quite a few hours.

When the soup is nearly done, remove the bone and any attached meat and sort through it, tossing the bone and fatty stuff and returning the meat to the pot. I also check the soup for bone fragments, weird gristle and stuff like that. Also remove the bay leaves. People can choke on them.

You'll start with dried peas or beans. Rinse them well and sort through for rocks and sticks. Actually the bags of beans/peas often have a standard soup recipe on them.

I just cook these soups without a recipe. Just throw in all the ingredients (crock pot). Ham bone, onions, celery, bay leaf, carrots plus the beans/peas.

Oh, by the way, I never need to salt the soup because the ham provides plenty.

This is what I do:

take a bag of split green peas and put them in a bowl, cover with cold water and soak overnight. Drain the water off in the morning and put them in a soup pot. Put the ham bone in and a large chopped onion, salt and pepper. Cook on low. After a couple hours you can take out the ham bone and take all the meat off and put that back in the pot. Add some barley or raw rice. I always add some finely chopped carrot and a bay leaf. My aunt sends me salted onion tops which I also add, but I don't know how many people have used those. Let simmer and stir occasionally. This is pea soup that is something everyone in northern Maine knows about. We love it.

I like Great Northern bean soup. I just wash the beans, cover them with water and bring to a boil. Leave covered and let them set an hour. Then I drain and rinse and add more water, a bit of chopped onion and the ham bone and some pepper. Let simmer for awhile, not nearly all day, maybe another hour. Taste to see if you do need any salt. I personally don't care for anything else in my bean soup, like celery or carrots. If you have a lot of broth, flat dumplings are really good cooked in it.

Sue

Personally, I would remove the ham from the bone before proceeding with any of the above soups. The bone has plenty of flavor for the soup. Then chop the meat and toss in at the end, just to warm the meat through.

I think ham gets a bit too stringy if cooked for hours in soup.

Our favorite is baby lima bean soup. I wash the beans, cover them with water and bring to a boil. Cover the pot and let them set an hour. Then drain and rinse and add more water, a chopped onion, the ham bone and some pepper. I also add about half a can of diced tomatoes, a finely chopped potato, celery salt, a teaspoon or less of tabasco sauce, and a little beef bouillon. Let simmer for 2-3 hours.

Not making it today, Socks! LOL

I've got some lentils here. Would they be any good in it?
I bought them to have as a side dish and we didn't like them just as a veggie.

Lentils take so little time to cook as compared to dried beans, that I would make a ham stock from the bone first (trimming the meat off as I suggested above), and then cook the lentils.

For the stock I'd use the ham bone, a bay leaf, a stalk or two of celery, some onion, and a carrot. Simmer (not boil) with water to cover for 2 or so hours. Strain out the veggies and bone and discard.

Use the stock to cook the lentils, with whatever other veggies you like in soup. Add the leftover ham at the end to warm it up.

I would cook the ham bone until able to remove the meat. It is such a good base for potato soup, corn chowder, or whatever you might like in a creamy soup. Lots of recipes on allrecipes.com

Senate bean soup is a good one!

I just made a bean soup today with my leftover ham bone. My mom has made it alot but I'd never done it. It was super easy.

I added Great Northern Beans to a large stock pot, with the ham bone. Put in enough water to cover the bone. Let it simmer for several hours until the beans are about done. Then add a can of tomato sauce and let it simmer on low until ready to serve. Add salt and pepper to taste. The extra meat will fall off the bone. Just remove any fatty pieces there are. It was really good.

No matter what type of soup I make with a ham bone I always made the stock first and then add the other ingredients. Simmer the ham bone for about 2 hours. Fish our and toss the bone. You can refrigerate the stock overnight and skim off some fat if you prefer. I then add split peas and grated carrot with some pearled barley (the peas break down, but the barley stays firmer, which is a nice contrast. I like the carrots for color and extra veggies). I also do a lentil soup (mixed lentils, usually), again adding carrots (we eat a lot of carrots).

Freeze it Use when you want to!

"You'll start with dried peas or beans. Rinse them well and sort through for rocks and sticks"...
that is so funny!
Suzan J

I always process the ham bone first because there is enough flavor in that bone to make more than one pot. Just fill a big covered pot with water and simmer till the meat is falling off. Hours....

Then you have a whole pot of broth. Remove the bone/meat, cool ...even over night to remove the fat...I take the bone and remove all the meat...and take it apart where all I have left is the good meat..no fat...no gristle etc....Then I use it to make soup. Sometimes I will have enough for two or three pots of soup. I use one and freeze or can the others.

Bean, potato is my favorite or peas...but use you imagination...even noodles and whatever suits your fancy.

Suzan--glad I gave you a chuckle, but I have found rocks and sticks in dried beans! Actually, on a recent batch of soup, my guest found a small twig in her soup. (Of course the guest had to be the one!)

Mary--that's a good idea about taking the meat off before all those hours of cooking.