Leftover Ham? Make Loaded Baked Potato Soup: A delicious, convenient Freezer Meal!
posted on
December 17, 2021
Maybe you have some leftover ham from Easter, Christmas or Thanksgiving? Or maybe you just have some in the freezer that you need to do something with, in any case, Loaded Baked Potato Soup is a delicious meal that you can make now or assemble as a Freezer-to-Slow-Cooker meal for later.
Better yet, make 2!
One for now and one for a busy night.
No time or curious to learn more about freezer meals? See what meals we currently have in stock here and check out our eCookbooks here.
Naturally gluten-free, easily dairy-free.
Loaded Baked Potato Soup
Ingredients
- 1.5 # diced potatoes
- 1/2 cup chopped onion
- 32 oz chicken broth
- 1 lb TF ham, diced (~ 2.5 cups)
- 1 tsp ground black pepper (to taste)
- Optional: 2 cups heavy cream (added at end of cooking)
- Toppings:
- Shredded cheese
- Cooked and diced TF bacon
- Green onions, chopped
- Chives, diced
Instructions: Place potatoes, ham, onions, chicken broth and black pepper in a slow cooker. Cook on low for 6-8 hours. Add the optional heavy cream and cook until warmed through 15-20 minutes. Ladle soup into bowls and garnish with toppings of your choice.
If you are not using heavy cream then remove and mash some of the potatoes and then stir back in and warm through.
FREEZER MEAL INSTRUCTIONS: Place potatoes, ham, onions, chicken broth and black pepper in a freezer bag. Label with the recipe name, cooking instructions from above and the "Froze On" date or "Use By" date (best to use within 3-6 months). I also like to make it very big and obvious (colorful works) if there are things to add on the day of cooking so that you can be sure to either have it on hand or plan to stop at the store on the way home to your deliciously hot and ready supper.
The chicken broth could be added on the day of cooking instead of directly in the freezer bag in order to save freezer space, however, the potatoes will likely discolor then.
Note: do not freeze the heavy cream, add at the end of the cooking time on the day you cook the meal.
INGREDIENT NOTES:
- This recipe is very forgiving so if you don't have 1 lb of ham, whatever you have will work.
- Include the ham bone for extra flavor and nutrients.
- It is also designed to be easily doubled (one for now and one for later) since potatoes come in 3# bags, the 1/2 onion, etc.
- I very highly recommend using organic potatoes! They rank very high on the EWG dirty dozen list because of all the chemicals used pre and post harvest (note that the EWG is only looking at pesticides that persist to your plate, but more than just pesticides are used on potatoes).
- If you use organic potatoes than I also highly recommend leaving the peel on to get all the great nutrition they have (definitely peel non-organic though).
- As a general rule of thumb I don't peel organic veggies.
- Meat is the most important food to buy organically since the animals eat and bioaccumulate all the -ides (pesticides, fungicides, herbicides....) and then have other things like hormones injected into them to worry about. To get Together Farm's worry-free ham and bacon head over to our store.
