Hearty Vegetable Soup With Ham

This soup makes great use of a leftover ham bone. It is relatively light and is a great starter or makes a meal with a nice salad and fresh bread. It is basically a mish mash of other recipes and uses up a lot of bits and pieces of leftover vegies in the fridge. I made it for my family of 3 and it was gone in 2 days! Enjoy!

• Ready In: 3 hrs 30 mins
• Yields: 16-20 cups

Ingredients

• 1  ham bone
• 2  cups  diced ham
• 8  cups water
• 8 (4 1/2g) packets  chicken soup base
• 1 (28 ounce) can diced tomatoes
• 2  garlic cloves, minced
• 2  cups celery, diced
• 2  cups onions, diced
• 2  cups carrots, diced
• 2  cups cabbage, chopped
• 2  cups cauliflower, chopped

Directions

1. Add ham to water in large dutch oven or stock pot.
2. Bring to a boil, cover and simmer for 2 hours or so.
3. Remove ham from water and put water in fridge until cooled completely. Pick and chop any meat from bone to add to soup.
4. Gently remove hardened fat from top of broth with a slotted spoon and discard fat.
5. Add chopped vegetables, tomatoes and garlic to broth and bring to a boil, simmer for about 20 minute
6. Add chopped meat and simmer for another 10 minutes.
7. Taste broth, and add chicken soup base to your desired taste.
8. Add more water and soup base as needed.
9. You can also add a can of kidney or other type of beans and/or 2 cups of kernel corn, green or yellow beans or diced potatoes if you desire.
10. This recipe is very versatile and you can add in whatever you personally like in the way of vegetables.
11. You can even leave out the ham and use chicken, beef or vegetable soup base.