Creamy Ham Soup
 
 
THM:S, low carb, sugar free, gluten/egg/nut free
Author:
Serves: 6 quarts
Ingredients
  • 6 cups of ham broth (make sure to read the Note below)
  • 4 cups frozen broccoli florets
  • 1 large onion, chopped
  • 1 16 oz. package radishes, chopped
  • 1 8 oz. package mushrooms, sliced
  • 1½ cups frozen green peas
  • 1 8 oz. block reduced fat cream cheese
  • 3 cups unsweetened almond milk (use carton coconut milk for a nut free option)
  • 1 cup heavy whipping cream
  • Salt, if necessary (I did not add any)
  • 1 tsp. each black pepper, dill weed, and garlic powder
  • ½ tsp. sage
  • Meat of choice (I used 1 lb. fried pork sausage and 2 cups of ham bits)
  • ¼ cup oat fiber (use gluten free if necessary)
  • 1 tsp. xanthan gum
  • ½ cup water
Instructions
  1. In a large soup kettle, cook the broccoli, onion, and radishes in the ham broth until mostly tender. Add the mushrooms and green peas, cream cheese, milk, cream, seasonings, and meat of choice.
  2. In a small bowl, whisk the xanthan gum and oat fiber together. Add the water and stir to make a paste. Stir into the soup.
  3. Simmer for at least 20 minutes, then serve with cheese if desired. Yields about 6 quarts of soup (plenty to feed our family of 6 twice with a little left over).
  4. I didn't have very much ham left to put in this soup, so I used a pound of sausage for part of the meat. If you have ham to use up, by all means just use as much as you like of it and omit the sausage.
Notes
Not all ham broth is created with equal strength, so you'll need to adjust the amounts according to what you're working with. I used about 2 cups of ham "juice" (the very strong, salty liquid left after baking a whole ham) and 4 cups of ham broth that I made by cooking a ham bone and trimmings with water in a crockpot overnight. The ham broth is not quite as strong as the ham juice. Vary the amount of ham broth called for in the recipe according to the strength of what you have. If yours is pretty strong, use water for part of the broth called for to dilute it. My suggestion: start with 3-4 cups of broth and make the soup. Then taste and add either more broth or water (depending on if the ham flavor needs to be stronger or weaker) to complete your six cups of broth.
To avoid a lot of unnecessary fat, I refrigerated my ham juice/broth overnight and skimmed the fat off before making this soup.
Recipe by Briana Thomas at https://www.briana-thomas.com/creamy-ham-soup/