Red Lentil and Ham Soup

This is a hard time of year for food. The weather outside is sunny and cool, the tulips are blooming all over Chicago and the anticipation of summer is in the air. And here I am making more winter soups. Ho hum. We try to eat seasonally as much as possible in The Whole Kitchen, and living in a northern climate means that local spring crops don’t really hit their stride until late May-early June. Which leaves us with a couple of months of extended winter eating. So here we are – another lentil soup…but it’s a good one, I promise!

I can’t get enough of red lentils. Heidi Swanson turned me on to them with two different red lentil soups, and now I seem to be reaching for the jar of red lentils in the pantry all the time. They are the perfect lentil when you want to add some texture to your soup without it screaming “lentils!” Red lentils (masoor dal) fall apart after cooking for about a half hour and have a light, fluttery presence in the broth. If you’re making a traditional Indian dal – it’s hard to beat the quick cooking time of red lentils.

This particular pot of soup was intended to be minestrone with wild rice. I had a beautiful ham hock from the whole ham we received in our meat farm share last month, a pot of freshly made chicken stock and I had green beans, sweet corn and all kinds of wintery veggies to be tossed into the pot. But minestrone was not to be. It just wasn’t appealing to me Sunday morning when I was chop chop chopping away. The weather outside wasn’t helping, with cold rain pounding down – I wanted something warm my belly. Out came that trusty jar of red lentils. In the end, I’m not sure what you’d call this soup – “Red Lentil Wants to be Minestrone,” maybe. It’s got gobs of veggies, and I took a page from my Indian spiced red lentil soup with the black mustard and cumin – the two flavors went perfectly with the smoky ham with a spike of heat from the red pepper flakes. Served with a scoop of wild rice, this is a perfect soup for a rainy Spring day.

Red Lentil Vegetable Soup with Ham
Serves 6

1 large onion, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
1 red bell pepper, cored and diced
2 large carrots, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 T ghee (or butter)
1 T coconut oil
1 T black mustard seeds, whole
1 tsp cumin, whole
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp rosemary
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
3 bay leaves
4 cups chicken stock
2 cups water
1 1/2 cups red lentils
1 10oz ham hock
salt & pepper to taste
1 T champagne vinegar
garnish with cilantro
cooked wild rice (optional)

1. Heat a large soup pot over medium heat. Add ghee and coconut oil to the pot along with mustard seeds and whole cumin. Cook until the black mustard seeds just begin to pop, then add the onion, red bell pepper, carrot and celery to the pot with 1/4 tsp salt. Stir to coat the veggies with the oil, and saute for about 10 minutes, until the veggies begin to soften, stirring every couple of minutes. After the 10 minutes, add the garlic and cook for 1 more minute. Add the cumin, rosemary, red pepper flakes, bay leaves, chicken stock, water, red lentils, ham hock. Cover and bring the soup to a boil.
2. When the soup comes to a boil, reduce the heat to low and simmer for an hour, uncovered, stirring occasionally. As the soup simmers, the red lentils will fall apart. After an hour, remove the bay leaves and ham hock and blend for a just a few seconds with an immersion blender. You don’t want the soup to be completely smooth – just puree it a little to smooth the lentils in the broth just a touch. Let the ham hock cool for a few minutes until you can handle it, then shred the meat off the bone, and add it back to the pot. Season the soup to taste with salt & pepper, and add 1 T of champagne vinegar, stir, and then serve. Garnish each bowl with cilantro. Serve with a scoop of wild rice if you like.

406 cal per bowl, 110 cal from fat, 13g fat, 30mg cholesterol, 800mg sodium, 450mg potassium, 51g carbs, 9g fiber, 8g sugars, 22g protein