Yesterday I made a big pot of soup.
It’s my January ritual to finish off the last of the Christmas ham and make the most of the lovely bones.
Normally, it’s sweltering and I spend much of the time wishing I lived in a climate where Christmas ham leftovers were around in the Winter time.
This year I managed to pick the perfect day.
Wind and rain and snow in the mountains. Whoever coined the term ‘climate change’ was certainly on to something.
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ham & lentil soup
serves 6-8+
If you don’t have leftover ham bones, feel free to substitute in smoked ham hocks or bacon bones. I use this as my base soup and then dress it up with different options as I serve. Chilli oil, fresh parsley, fresh basil, pesto, gremolata… endless possibilities.
approx 1.5kg (3lb) ham bones with some meat still attached
3-4 onions, diced
1 can tomatoes
250g (1/2lb) dried lentils
1. Place ham bones, onions, tomatoes and 2L (8cups) water in a large pot and bring to the boil.
2. Simmer, covered for 2-3 hours or until ham is super tender and falling off the bone and the house smells divine.
3. Remove ham bones and allow to cool. Add the lentils to the pot and simmer for 45minutes to an hour or until lentils are tender. I find they take longer when simmering in the salty ham broth than they would in water.
4. While the lentils are cooking shred the meat from the bones and return to the pan.
5. If the soup starts to dry out or get too thick, add more water. Serve with lashings of black pepper and a good drizzle of olive oil.
Cheers,
Jules x
ps.
For those of you who missed it, I’m having a sale on membership to the Stonesoup Virtual Cookery School to celebrate the birthday of my blog.
To get in before the discount ends on 17th Jan, go to:
www.stonesoupvirtualcookeryschool.com/landing/all/
Current SVCS students login over here:
www.stonesoupvirtualcookeryschool.com/
