I love soup, a meal in a bowl served with bread, simple satisfying food.
This soup is loved by children, full of flavour and a few hidden carrots! It is also great for school lunches, lots of goodness packed in to their thermos!
This recipe makes 4 litres, enough to serve 10-12 depending on your bowl size and whether you choose to water it down a bit! I always freeze half, it freezes really well and gives me an occasional night off!
Ingredients
2 ham hocks
1 onion, chopped roughly
1kg carrots, peeled and chopped
splash of olive oil
400g/2 cups red lentils, rinsed and drained
salt and pepper
Method
In a large stock pot or pressure cooker, place the ham hocks and add 2.5litres water.
Bring to the boil and simmer for 1 hour if using a stockpot. In a pressure cooker bring up to pressure and cook for 30mins.
Drain with a sieve over a large bowl or jug to catch all of the stock.
Once the hocks have cooled, strip off the meat, chop finely and set aside.
In a large pan, a 6 litre pan works well, warm a splash of olive oil and add onions and carrots, cook until onions are soft.
Skim any fat off the stock, make the stock up to 3 litres with water, add stock to the onion and carrot mix, stir and add the lentils.
Add the hock meat and bring up to the boil, simmer gently for 30-40mins when the carrots should be soft and the lentils falling apart.
Allow to cool slightly and then, using a hand held blender, liquidize completely. If using a liquidizer let the soup cool right down, soup splashes really burn!
Season well, we enjoy lots of pepper in this soup.
Serve with some nice crusty bread.
For a vegetarian version, omit the hock and use vegetable stock, add 2 teaspoons ground cumin and 4 teaspoons ground coriander while cooking the onions and carrots.
This is one of my fave soup recipes from you Ros – we love love it!!!
Thanks Sara!
I’d love to reblog this for my Lentern lentils series! would that be okay??
Hi Fran, thanks for asking! Feel free to share, this is one of my all time favourite soups. 🙂 Ros
Brilliant! Thank you so much!
My pleasure Fran! 🙂 Ros
Reblogged this on The Seasoned Student and commented:
Thanks to Ros at Cooking Up the Pantry for this brilliant soup! A great recipe to make ahead for packed lunches this week.