Tuesday, July 30, 2013

ham, pea and lentil soup


I'm not a fan of your traditional pea and ham soup. This is my prettier, way more delicious version of it with the added bonus of lentils.

ingredients;
1 cup of beluga or french lentils - soaked for 1-2 days in filtered water then rinsed well and cooked in clean filtered water, strain, set aside.

for the stock
1 large ham bone (free range organic one if you can get your hands on one)
1 large onion cut in half
1 leek cut in half
a handful of baby tomatoes
and a bunch of parsley
a couple of cloves of garlic
a slug of apple cider vinegar
1/2 teaspoon of pepper
water to fill the pot - I use my 26cm Le Creuset round pot
all you do is
put everything in a pot cover with water till its a couple of cm from the top, put the lid on stick it in the oven before you go to bed on 90c and when you wake up just like magic your ham stock will be ready!

for the soup 
1 large leek - chopped finely
2 normal size carrots  - chopped finely
2 cups of fresh or frozen peas
1/2 cup of finely chopped parsley - chopped finely
2 cups of the cooked lentils

to put the soup together you do this
strain your stock through a sieve setting aside the ham bone and removing all the tender meat and breaking it up into small pieces (discard all the rest in the pot)
you should be left will a golden stock and all the delicious meat from the ham bone
bring it to a simmer and then it's as simple as adding the leek first, followed by the carrot, give this about 10-15 min to cook on the simmer till the carrot has softened then you pretty much throw in the peas, lentils and parsley cook for a couple of extra mins or bring it back to the simmer

serve in bowls with a little dried chili and a drizzle of best olive oil and some seeded Iggy's bread.

This soup is the bomb.


©Michelle Schoeps 2013
All recipes and photos by Michelle Schoeps

1 comment:

  1. Hi, what organic ham bone, or ham in general do you buy? Thanks. Bev

    ReplyDelete