Ham and Potato Soup is a cool weather staple around here and it’s easy to make in the crock pot and perfect for any leftover baked ham! A simple and delicious soup loaded with potatoes, sweet carrots and tender ham cooks in the slow cooker all day so dinner is ready when you are.
This easy slow cooker ham and potato soup is perfect served alongside our favorite 30 Minute Dinner Rolls with a fresh Kale Salad!
Slow Cooker Potato Soup
Few things are as comforting as a delicious and creamy soup on a cold winter day! Even better is coming home to dinner after a busy day of work or errands!
I truly love potato soup, it’s so comforting! One of my very best friends made this delicious Ham and Potato soup for me for lunch one day! It was a chilly day and this warmed me from the inside out! (Thanks Dee, you’re the best)!
Since then, I’ve made this soup so many times. It’s always delicious and never lasts long around here! This is one of those soups that is fabulous the first day just as amazing leftover… (and any time I can cook once, eat twice is a good thing around here)!
Technically you could consider this delicious soup a potato chowder as it is a thick creamy soup that is generally chunky. Regardless of what you call it, it’s absolutely delicious! While chowders often contain fish (like seafood chowder), they can contain a variety of vegetables or meat and still be considered a chowder (like Slow Cooker Corn Chowder)!
How To Thicken Potato Soup
One thing I particularly love about this soup is that it uses potatoes to thicken it without adding in a lot of heavy cream and butter. While the flavor and texture are rich and creamy, it’s not loaded up with fat and calories!
If you are trying to curb your dairy or fat intake, you can thicken this ham potato soup recipe (or other potato soup recipes) with mashed up potatoes and carrots right before it is served. This will make it slightly creamy but with just enough rustic chunkiness and not too rich. Simply scoop out a couple cups of potatoes and carrots and gently mash, then return to the Crock Pot. Adjust for flavor with salt and pepper and let everyone dig in!
If you’d like it even thicker, you can also add in a few potato flakes to reach desired thickness. If you’d prefer, you can also create a cornstarch slurry (equal parts cornstarch and water), stir it in and let it simmer in the crock pot 15 minutes on high.
I most often use leftovers from my fave Crock Pot Ham or a ham bone to make this soup but if you don’t have leftovers, it works perfectly with diced ham steaks from the grocery store too! If you’d like to make this into a cheesy ham and potato soup, stir in a handful of cheddar cheese and a sprinkle of parmesan cheese just before serving. Remember that dairy can curdle at high temperatures so when you don’t want to cook it too long in the slow cooker. Once you add the milk and sour cream (and cheeses if you add any), you just want to make sure everything is heated through.
Can You Freeze Potato Soup with Ham?
Most creamy soups and chowders can be easily frozen, including this ham and potato soup recipe. All you have to do is put leftover soup in the fridge overnight to make sure it is completely cooled. Then, pour into a plastic freezer bag and lay flat on a cookie sheet in the freezer. Once they are frozen solid, simply stack them up and you have a grab-and-go meal for another busy day!
More Slow Cooker Soups You’ll Love
- Slow Cooker French Onion Soup
- Slow Cooker Chicken Pot Pie Soup
- Crockpot Chicken Noodle Soup
- Slow Cooker Cabbage Soup
- Slow Cooker Chicken Enchilada Soup
- Crock Pot Ham and Bean Soup
Easy Crock Pot Ham and Potato Soup
Equipment
Ingredients
- 7 cups potatoes diced
- 1 medium onion diced
- 1 large carrot chopped
- 2-3 cups ham diced
- 2 teaspoons parsley
- 1 teaspoon thyme leaves
- pepper to taste
- 5 cups Ready to Serve Chicken Broth (I use low sodium)
- 1 cup 2% milk
- ½ cup sour cream
- Pepper to taste
Instructions
- Add diced potatoes, onion, carrot, ham, thyme, parsley, pepper & broth to a crock pot.
- Cook on low 7 hours, or high 3 hours.
- Remove 2-3 cups of the potatoes/carrots and mash, then return the mashed mixture to the crock pot.
- Add milk and sour cream. Stir and cook an additional 15 minutes. Add pepper to taste. Makes twelve 1-cup servings.
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Soup
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Question: If I’m using my leftover ham and ham bone from Christmas, do you think it’s a good idea to add the ham bone to my crockpot and use let’s say 3 cups of water and 2 cups chicken broth? That way as it’s slow cooking for 7 hours the soup will get a lot of flavor from the cooked ham bone? I’m making this today so I don’t have time to make a bone broth first and plus when I look up ham broth recipes they call for onion, carrots, water so it’s like I’m doing a 2 in 1 am I right?
I think the ham bone would give this great flavor!! It may have a little more salt so the addition of water (and low sodium) broth should work perfectly. Let us know how it goes!
You think you can substitute white sweet potatoes?
I haven’t tried it but I can’t see any reason it wouldn’t work. Let us know how it goes!
Great soup
An absolutely great soup, no fuss no muss with some great tips. One of the best leek and potato soups that I have made
I will certainly back for more recipes
B
Hi! Any dairy free ingredients you suggest? This looks delish but we are dairy sensitive. Not sure of the best replacements for milk and sour cream to keep the integrity of the recipe. Thanks!
Cook the soup as directed skipping the dairy at the end. You can mash some of the potatoes for a creamier consistency. If you have a non-dairy milk/sour cream you like you could also try that although they can change the flavor somewhat.
Y’all have thing that my wife & I can enjoy without having a ton of left overs. Two retire”s in their early 70’s don’t eat 15lb hams no matter how you cook it and on a limited budget! Keep up the good work
I usually just get a ham steak from the market. Come prepackaged from the supplier of the hams.
Hi James try Smithfield Anytime Favorites they have a cubed selection 8oz per package, I’ve used in mine and it was delicious .
I cooked mine on stove top, brought to boil and then simmered for 90 minutes, then added my dairy and simmered another 30. I also like to toss in a couple of Knorr chicken boullion for a little depth, be sure to not salt till the end if adding the boullion may not need much of any salt.
I am on a very limited budget – and your recipes are budget friendly and very delicious!!! I love comfort food – and you have it down for sure! Thank You!!!
Thank you Susan. We are so happy to share these recipes with you!
Delicious recipe!!! And easy. Wasn’t looking forward to chopping all the veggies but looking forward to a new recipe, I forgot about the chopping. Thanks!!! Kathleen
Thank you Kathleen. So glad you enjoyed it!
This is how I make my potato soup, I use cauliflower for the potatoes (frozen is quicker) ,my husband and I are diabetics and can’t have the starch, it tastes the same and is soooo good!
So glad you enjoy it Jamie! It’s one of our favorites too.
Made this today and used a huge sweet potato and a mixture of russets and Dutch Yellows. Also added leeks, parsnips, and garlic to the onion, carrots and celery. Sautéed these first,in a large cast iron Dutch Oven, then added the potatoes continued for another five minutes or so. Added the broth and seasoned with salt, freshly ground pepper and a dash of cayenne. I waited to add ham (leftover and frozen) cubed, after I puréed with my immersion blender. Lastly I used half n half and tempered sour cream.
I would suggest to those who either said it was bland…to aggressively seasoned and if thyme is not your thing choose herbs or spices that you like.
Thank you for sharing your additions Diane, sounds delish!
You changed the whole thing? Annoying
Woke up to curdled milk. Can I save this? Or throw out the whole thing and start over? I’m so bummed out, wanted some for breakfast.
If the milk is spoiled I would suggest remaking the dish. Hopefully it turns out just as good!
I put the sour cream and milk in at the beginning and I don’t have ingredients to te make
How do you manage to separate the potatoes and carrot chunks from the ham? I’m having the worst time with it.
I don’t separate them completely, I just try to get mostly the potatoes out. If you mash gently with a potato masher, any ham pieces should stay intact. Enjoy the soup!
I just made two crock pots full of this soup!! I made a pot full of broth from our Easter ham. I chilled the broth and skimmed off the fat. It made enough broth for 2 pot fulls! I used the chopped square hasbrown potatoes and cooked it on low for 7 hours. I was also able to mash some of the veggies in the pots, so no extra mess! Mine does look more like a chowder. We are so pleased with the results! Thanks for sharing this recipe!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it Toni!
Awesome recipe! Tasted great. I did add 1 sweet potato because I have some and that based a lot of good flavor!
That sounds like a yummy addition! I am so glad that you enjoyed the recipe!
Made this tonight with leftover Christmas ham. I added a bay leaf, about a tsp. of thyme and some corn. I accidentally put in more chicken broth than the recipe called for so I added about 1/2 cup of potato flakes to the cream/flour/sour cream mixture at the end. It turned out fabulous! Everyone went back for seconds! Thanks for the awesome recipe. Will definitely make this one again!
I am so glad that you enjoyed this recipe!
This potato soup was delicious. I didn’t have an onion or a carrot so I put in 2 cups of frozen mixed veggies. Since I cooked mine on high, after two hours cooking, I added the veggies. Also added one teaspoon of nutmeg. Used leftover ham from Christmas dinner. Also added 1/4 cup of flour to the milk and sour cream and whisked them very well before adding to the soup. Then I turned my crock pot down and stirred the milk/flour mixture into it. Also did not have chicken broth so I just threw in 5 chicken bouillon cubes and 5 cups of water. It was soooo goood! Thanks for the recipe.
I am so glad you were able to make this work with what you had on hand!
Can this recipe Be made with skipping mashing the potatoes and just have diced potatoes?
Is there a purpose that you mash some and then put them back in the slow cooker?
I asked this question before but never received a reply back.
You can leave them as is. Mashing slightly will thicken the soup but it’s not required.
Do you think this would freeze well?
I also added peas and corn.
How do you make this budget friendly, i.e. what source of ham do you use? The ham I found that was already cooled cost me about $10, which seems more than the idea of the recipe calls for.
This is a great way to use up leftovers. You can also check for ham bones or purchase an inexpensive ham steak.