I’ve blogged a couple of times about the soup I make (I think, although a quick search doesn’t reveal anything). Anyway, it seems to be good for my blood sugar which I found out after I’d been making it a while, which is handy for my diabetes. It took me a few years to get it right – my mum makes it (or used to) with a ham shank, which I could never get around to sorting out.
I eventually settled on a gammon joint as the base and it works quite well. Since I’m about to put another batch on, I thought I’d write down how I make it.
I buy a gammon join, and some potatoes, carrots, swede, shallots, leeks and lentils. I boil the gammon joint for some period of time, until it’s done. Then I chop the various amounts of vegetables, and chuck them and the lentils into the stock. I know I should strain the stock and get the fat out, but I don’t. I then chop some of the gammon joint and stick that in (I slice the rest and keep it). I then simmer it for some period of time until the lentils have turned completely smooth.
See? Easy 🙂
I guess if you want numbers, just remember that I don’t look at this by quantity, I just buy whatever looks okay at the time and stick it all in.
- Gammon Joint – today’s is around 1.7kg, un-smoked, good quality
- 300g sweet shallots – quartered
- 1kg potatoes (I tend to use British Charlotte potatoes, because they don’t turn to mush) – cut into chunks (halved, or quartered if they’re big)
- 4-6 leeks – sliced roughly 1-2cm thick
- 500g swede – cut into chunks
- 500g carrots – cut into 1-2cm chunks
- 500g red split lentils.
- This gives 8-10 servings.
Half cover the gammon (in a big pan), simmer for an hour or so, and then while it’s cooling, chop the veg. Take the gammon out (remove the fat from the gammon, and get the fat out of the stock if you want – easier if you make the gammon stock the day before, I don’t). Stick the veg and lentils into the stock. Chop gammon to taste, stick into the stock. At this point, you need to judge if there’s enough water or if you need to add more. I make this soup *thick*. I’m serious, it’s slice-able when cold. However, if you like it with more liquid you’ll need an even bigger pan.
Heat slowly, stir often to prevent sticking. It’s done for me when the lentils are virtually a single homogeneous gloop.