Crockpot Ham and Potato Soup with Heavy Cream

Crockpot ham and potato soup is amazing! You can use leftover ham or ham hocks with vegetables to make this creamy bowl of comfort food for your family tonight.

Potato Soup with Ham Crock Pot

Whether it is after Easter or Christmas and you need a great leftover ham recipe, or you found some cheap ham hocks, it’s a great choice either way. Thick and creamy like chowder, you just throw it all in and go. Truly a dump dinner you’ll love.

We like to make it cheesy too with some inside and more shredded on the top. If you need a dairy free version I will add suggestions for that as well, we have made that too.

Let’s talk a little bit about slow cooking shall we?? First off I have a few different varieties and I love them all. Each one has an occasion to be used like….

1. This is my favorite 6 quart programmable one with a locking lid so it’s great for bringing to a potluck too.
2. I prefer not to use liners, but rather just spray olive oil inside before adding my food for easier cleanups.

Let me give you a peek of my pretty thang I bought recently. It goes with my kitchen so I can just leave it out on the countertop all the time. 😉

Ham Hock Soup

If you’ve never bought those weird looking bones with bits of meat surrounding them in the store, you should! OH How I love them. We put together a list of simple Ham Hock Recipes, this is just one of them.

We have made slow cooker ham and beans before with dry beans from the beginning. That was amazing.

• Wanted to make something similar but faster so I created Instant Pot barley soup.
• Black eyed peas and ham is a great New Years dinner too, they’re known to be lucky you know.

I picked up a package of two of these at the store the other day. Total was 1.5 pounds and it was only $4.23. Talk about a cheap and easy Crockpot soup idea!

Crockpot Potato Soup with Ham Hock

Here are a few questions you might have before you get started on this one.

This is in the midst of me prepping all the ingredients. It doesn’t take very long really.

Ham and Potato Soup

This is what we used, below I have a list of alternative ingredients you could use too. If you want it to be more creamy and delicious, rather than chunky then make them half this size you see above. You could also use an emersion blender when done right inside the Crock pot.

• Ham hocks, or leftover ham
• Chicken broth
• Potatoes
  • or use bagged already cut in our Crockpot potato soup with frozen hashbrowns recipe
• Onion
• Minced garlic
• Carrots and celery
• Heavy cream
• Cornstarch
• Oregano and Basil
• Garlic salt

Honestly, if all I have is vegetable broth, I would just use that. Use what you have on hand I say. Let’s talk about potatoes. I usually have a bag of russet in my pantry. We do live in Idaho so…….that’s a given. Red are great too though. The biggest difference is how firm they are and remain during the cooking process. Even after 6 hours these held up really nice, just remember to not dice them up too small.

Here are some variations you could make to this that I have found:

1. Dice up a ham steak instead of ham bones
2. Slice lots of carrots and celery up and add those, or omit them all
3. Keep it simple and only add salt and pepper instead of all the seasonings
4. Top with green onions when serving a bowl of this slow cooker ham and potato soup
5. Stir in shredded cheese at the end, or top each bowl with it

Do not cook on high, really. Low and slow is key when you’re making any type of Crockpot potato soup recipe.

Does cream cheese thicken up ham and potato soup?

I mean if you didn’t have heavy cream you could use this instead but you would want to let it sit on the counter to really soften up. Then whisk chunks of it into the broth until it gets smooth. A plus to this is you can find it in dairy free forms which you may need.

How do you make a thick and creamy potato soup without using dairy products?

As mentioned above you can find lactose free cream cheese and/or sour cream that can be substituted for the cream. Another option is to thicken almond milk or cashew milk with a bit more cornstarch until you get a smooth mixture and pour that in. Any of these will make it creamy but be free of dairy.

Slow Cooker Ham Hock Soup

At the end I wanted it to have a creamier base, but you could leave this part out and enjoy it as is. It would be amazing either way. After that heated up I thought it needed to be a bit thicker so cornstarch was added too. It really is a super easy throw together meal. The only “work” in the middle is if you use ham bone you’ll want to remove the meat and fat mid way through.

1. Put ham hocks in the middle of your pot with flat ends facing down.
   Dice potatoes with skins on in 1/2″ squares (or so) and put those around hocks in pot.
2. Dice onions and throw those in too.
3. Sprinkle in all seasonings and add pieces of celery and carrots if desired. Pour broth over everything.
4. Close lid and set to low for 6 hours. Lift lid and test potatoes, they should be tender. Take ham hocks out and on a cutting board remove bones and fat, discard.
5. Dice up tender meat and put that back into your slow cooker. Pour in 1 c of heavy cream and stir.

In a small bowl whisk together remaining 1/4 c. remaining heavy cream with cornstarch until smooth. Stir. Put lid back on and cook on low for 30 more minutes. Serve. Sometimes I will add shredded cheddar cheese to the top when served…because that’s amazing too.

Printable recipe card is below with nutritional information such as calories and saturated fat listed too. Other under 30 minute prep slow cooker recipes you might like are:

• Loaded baked potato soup in the slow cooker is amazing too.
• We make slow cooker mashed potatoes during the holidays.
• Baked potatoes in a Crockpot are great with our 5 ingredient chili too.

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