Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Ham Salad -Remaking Leftovers Into Something Wonderful


I had some leftover ham from our Easter dinner in my fridge.  It made some killer ham salad!  Talk about looking forward to lunch!

I haven't made a whole lot of ham salad.  My husband's aunt used to make her version of "ham" salad with bologna, and it is equally as wonderful, but since I did have some ham that was languishing in the refrigerator, I decided to give it a go.  It was easy, used only three ingredients and made just wonderful sandwiches!  

Ham is such a great thing to have around the house.  We bake a big, bone-in, ham that we get in the meat department of our local grocery store.  We ask that it be "sliced and tied" so that after we bake it, the ham is pretty much ready to serve.  The butcher slices it in thick slices, leaving it in the shape of the ham, and ties it with twine.  We bake it with the twine on.  Ham is one of our favorite family dinners when the entire crew is home, cousins, aunts, the whole bunch!

After you try your hand at making ham salad, you will be making more ham.  Just to eat as ham salad!  Trust me!

Here's how I made homemade Ham Salad AT HOME MY WAY:

Ham Salad

  • Ham (I used a ham I baked myself, but I'm sure you could use lunchmeat ham, ham steak, or bologna works in a pinch)
  • Food processor or grinder (I used my mini food processor and processed small batches - which I got on sale at one of those Black Friday sales after Thanksgiving - for cheap).  
  • Mayonnaise or Miracle Whip (I like the sweetness of Miracle Whip, but I would use straight mayo in a pinch and just sweeten it a little before blending with the other ingredients)
  • Sweet pickle relish
Instructions:

Grind meat in the food processor.  I ended up with about two cups of ground ham.  Place in a bowl to stir it up. 

To those two cups of ground ham, I added about 3 heaping tablespoons of Miracle Whip and 3 heaping tablespoons of sweet relish.  Stir it all together until well blended.  If it seems dry, add more relish/mayo, keeping equal portions of relish to Miracle Whip/mayo.


Here's my little chopper.  Works like a dream boat!



Finely chopped!



Place in a dish and add the relish and mayo.


I like mine served on super soft, white bread, with nothing else except a few sweet pickles.  Yummy!



Enjoy!


Gina