My new favorite soup - Ham and Corn Chowder

After a big holiday feast, I ended up with leftovers.  Easter was yesterday and I now have a leftover turkey to become creative with.  Maybe you have leftover ham?  If so, give this recipe for Ham and Corn Chowder (printable recipe available here) a try.  I made it using leftover ham from Christmas time (I had saved it in the freezer).

Printable Recipe

Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, Hy-Vee ran a special that if you bought a ham, you got a free turkey.  I priced it out and it was a good deal for our family, getting both a small turkey and a large (to us) ham for under $20.  I put both in the freezer and it took a few months before I defrosted that ham to cook.  It was huge for our family of four!  So after we had our fill of ham, I borrowed my mom's meat slicer and cut it up.  I then took a slice or two and decided to make a ham and corn chowder.  I had tried a corn and potato chowder back in September and had been trying to find it's recipe without success.  My friend Nancy helped me out by sending several recipes she had so I took those, did a little combining and improvising and made up a recipe.

My family are not big soup eaters, although I'm becoming a big soup fan.  For my husband, the soup is okay as a soup - but he loved it as a dip.  My 5 y/o scarfed down her bowl and I loved it too.  I'm not even sure the 9 y/o tasted it before declaring she didn't like it.  But she did pick out the ham from her bowl to eat.

When I hosted my first Shelf Reliance Tasting, I made the soup and it was such a hit that I made it again for my second Tasting.  One of the friends who attended the second Tasting requested the recipe, again, today so I'm going to try to write it out for you.

Saute onion, carrot and THRIVE Freeze-Dried Celery in butter until it makes your house smell yummy.  As I'm relatively new to Shelf Reliance, I'm in the process of using up all the non-THRIVE products in our house so I did not use THRIVE Freeze-dried Onion, (or the THRIVE Onions which are dehydrated instead of freeze dried, THRIVE Carrot Dices.

Then mix 1/4 c flour and 1/2 c water together - adding the water slowly so you don't have clumps of flour goup in your soup.  Then add to your veggies to make a roux.

Pour in chicken bone stock (I normally use Amy from New Nostalgia's recipe here) and evaporated milk.  If you were needing to make a shelf stable recipe, or you are like I was when taking these pictures and discover you are out of bone stock, you could definitely use THRIVE chicken bouillon (or the brand of your choice) with water.

Add the THRIVE Freeze-dried Diced Potatoes, (You could also use the THRIVE Potato Chunks which are dehydrated rather than freeze-dried but a little less expensive.  Technically, you could also buy potatoes and spend your time peeling and dicing them yourself - and then having to cook the soup a lot longer to get them fully cooked.  Now that I've got the freeze-dried potatoes, I won't be doing that anymore.)

Add in corn,  (I use THRIVE Freeze-dried Sweet Corn in this recipe - the corn tastes like I just cut it off a fresh cob of corn out of the garden without the mess and work that requires!  None of that mushy canned corn or freezer-burnt frozen corn for us!)

Stir - see those freeze-dried veggies sitting on top of the water.  They're starting to absorb the liquid, becoming almost alive again - and definitely becoming delicious!

Chop up your ham and add to your soup. Add a sprinkle of ground red pepper.

Simmer until soup is heated through and your freeze dried corn and potatoes are rehydrated.  Just before serving, add the shredded cheddar (I'll be using THRIVE Freeze-dried Cheddar Cheese as soon as I'm able to order some).

Guess what we ate for dinner?!  My husband liked it even better this time (I'm converting him to this soup) although he complained something was missing.  It was then that I explained I had to use chicken bouillon instead of my normal flavorful chicken bone stock.  We both think that's what he was noticing.  He tried adding some garlic salt and immediately commented - "that's not it".

Eden's Ham and Corn Chowder

(based on recipes from Paula Deen and from reading way too many cooking blogs)

Printable Recipe here

2 T butter
2 T THRIVE FD Onion
1 T THRIVE Carrots
1 T THRIVE FD Celery
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup flour
3 cups chicken bone stock, (or 3 t THRIVE chicken bouillon  + 3 cups water)
1 can Evaporated Milk

1/2 c THRIVE Sweet Corn (FD)
1/2 c THRIVE Diced Potatoes (FD)
1/2 c diced ham
1/2 c THRIVE shredded cheddar (FD)
1/8 t ground red pepper

Saute the onion, carrots and celery (not reconstituted) in butter in medium pot.  Slowly add water into flour to prevent clumping.  Then add flour mixture to pot.  Pour in bone stock (or add water and 3 bouillon cubes or 3 t bouillon granules) and evaporated milk.  Add potatoes, corn, and ham, then sprinkle with red pepper.  Simmer until veggies are reconstituted.  Just before serving, add shredded cheddar.

Serves 4.

Note:  You can adjust the amount of stock to make the soup thinner or thicker based on your preference.