Yeah! More soup!

If you are a regular reader of my blog, you know what a fan of homemade soups I am. Fresh ingredients and a nice soup bone in my crockpot… I’m in heaven! (Check out my recent post on bone broth and vegetable beef soup!)

Some of the very best soups are some of the most simple, in my opinion, which is what clean eating is all about. You don’t need a lot of fancy ingredients or things you’ll use just 1 T. of and then let waste away. It’s the reason your mom’s and grandma’s recipes were always so tasty. The simplicity. The basic wholesomeness.

That leads me to today’s post, Ham, Lentil and Potato soup. I hope you don’t just throw out that treasure that’s left after your make a wonderful ham for dinner – between the juice left from the roasting and the ham bone after it’s all carved off, you’ve got yourself the start of one of the best (and easiest) soups you can make! It’s got a decent amount of vegetables plus an extra boost from those protein-plus lentils. My husband loves this one and I think it’s because it has so much flavor. This is one rich soup, easily adaptable to the ingredients you already have on hand. It’s also one made with a bit of leftovers, so it’s terrific for those busy days after a fancy meal – save that ham bone!

So… a few days before…

Cook your ham in slow cooker. Retain the resulting juices and the ham bone.

Remove as much ham as possible from bone when cooled. You can store the ham bone and the juice from cooking in the refrigerator for a few days. For your soup you’ll want about 1 1/2 c. ham in all.

And on soup day!

Remove any layer of grease from top of cooled ham juices and discard.

Put bone, juice, and ham from bone in large pot on stove with 7-8 c. water.

Add:

1 onion, chopped

pepper

1/3 c. lentils

Bring to a boil, then simmer 45 min. More ham may come off now.

Add:

5 red skinned potatoes, cubed (3 1/2 – 4 c.)

1 carrot, thinly sliced

1 stalk celery, chopped

1 1/2 green beans, chopped

Boil, then simmer until veggies are done. Remove and discard ham bone, trimming any remaining ham first.

Melt 2 T. butter, then stir in 2 T. flour. Add 1 c. milk quickly. Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly. Stir mixture into soup.

** You can change this easily for personal taste. It’s great with white soup beans, too! Just soak according to package directions before you make your soup, and add with those lentils. If you like more carrots, put ’em in. Want a bit of corn? Add 1/3 c. with the rest of the ingredients. Throw in a cup of chopped spinach or kale. No matter what you do, it’s a great treat a few days after that ham dinner and you won’t let that ham bone to to waste! It freezes well, too, so you can save some for later.

As always… enjoy!