Red Lentil Soup with Ham - Another Bone For Puppy!

I mentioned we had a ham a few weeks ago and  had been taking a break for several days from ham, ham, ham, ham, ham, ham, ham, ham wonderful ham!  The bone had been in the freezer and I happened to have a lot of red lentils in the pantry, a result of forgetting I had some when I was in the Mediterranean market.

I like lentil soup very much and have featured it before on the blog. This one uses the red lentils, which have a lovely rose orange color when dried but lose it when they cook. So at the end of the preparation, they look like regular yellow lentils. You could use yellow or brown lentils in this as well.

I recently discovered Ham Better Than Bouillon, so this was the inaugural recipe with the product. It smells really fantastic!

Happiness is ham bone...with leaves!

It, like the barley soup, tends to thicken when cooled, so when re-heating you'll probably want to add a bit of water or chicken stock.

And of course, happy puppy got another bone. She's living in a Dog Paradise.

Serve with bread, or soft pitas. Mangia!

Red Lentil Soup with Ham

Adapted from Heather Christo

1 leftover ham bone from half ham spiral cut, or two ham hocks

2 cups leftover ham, chopped (if not using ham hocks)

1 Tbs butter

2 cups onion, small diced

2 cups carrots, small diced

2 cups celery, small diced
1 tablespoon fresh thyme, chopped

2 cups dry white wine

8 cups chicken stock (I used half chicken and half ham Better than Bouillon)

12 oz dried red lentils, rinsed thoroughly and drained

2 tsp dried cumin

2 tsp smoked paprika

Kosher salt

Heat a large heavy pot over medium-high heat. Add the ham bone and let it sear in the pot for a few minutes.  Add the butter and let it melt with the ham bone. Add the vegetables and thyme to the pot and sprinkle them with Kosher salt. Stir the vegetables with the butter and let them sweat until soft and tender, about 10 minutes.

Add the white wine and scrape any browned bits off of the bottom of the pot. Add the chicken stock and bring to a simmer. Add the lentils.  Cover the soup with a lid and let the soup simmer about 30 minutes until the lentils are fluffy and tender.

Remove the ham bone (or hocks if you are using those), allow to cool enough to handle and cut meat from it to add back into soup along with the leftover ham meat.

Season with the cumin, paprika and Kosher salt.