Ham Hock Christmas Soup with Lentils

Ingredients

• 1 leftover smoked ham bone or 2 smoked ham hocks
• 1 pound lentils (about 2 1/2 cups), picked over and rinsed
• 1/2 pound mushrooms, chopped (about 3 1/2 cups)
• 3 onions, chopped coarse
• 1 cup chopped carrot
• 1 cup chopped celery
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 bay leaf
• 3 1/2 cups beef broth
• 8 cups water
• Optional: green peas, potato diced

 

Preparation

In a 6- to 8-quart kettle combine all ingredients and simmer soup, covered partially, stirring occasionally, 1 1/2 hours. Discard bay leaf and cinnamon stick and remove meat from bone or hocks. Chop meat and stir into soup.

First time we tried (something similar to) this recipe was: on November 28, 2013 after author presentation by Simon Sebag Montefiore at Pret.