I hope you all had a great Christmas dinner or three! I am still beyond full from the two I enjoyed, neither of which I had to prepare, although I did make large quantities of these potatoes, Chocolate Ecstasy, and Pumpkin Toffee Cheesecake. Now the leftovers sitting in my fridge make me sad I don’t have more room in my belly to enjoy them.
Clearly, I should have had the forethought to start stretching my stomach with large meals a couple months ago…that would’ve added some weight (literally!) to my upcoming standard New Years workout resolution!
All this rich food and dessert, however, always makes me crave good, comforting, health food, so I wanted to share this simple, hearty soup with you in case you have a leftover ham bone and some ham – we usually do ham and turkey at both Thanksgiving and Christmas, and while homemade turkey soup from the bird’s carcass will always be my favorite, this ham soup is a close second. I love that I can throw everything in the slow cooker and enjoy the smell all day long, and now so can you!
Sorry, this soup isn’t my prettiest child, but it more than makes up for it in the taste and smell departments, something my prettier children can’t necessarily claim!
This a great soup to throw extra veggies in, pretty much whatever you have in your fridge. The ham bone gives an amazing smoky flavour, and the lentil flavour is not dissimilar to peas. However, my hubby hates pea soup and loves this stuff, possibly because it lacks the thick puree texture I love so much about a good pea soup. You could definitely do some pureeing to this soup, but I would leave it at least partially chunky, and don’t forget to leave the ham out until after pureeing if you go that route.
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 2-3 celery stalks, halved lengthwise and chopped
- 3 large carrots, quartered lengthwise and chopped
- 1½ cups dried lentils, rinsed and drained
- 1-2 cups chopped, cooked ham
- 4 cups chicken broth or stock (if there is a gluten allergy, ensure you use gluten free chicken stock, not the generic store brands which usually contain wheat)
- 3-4 cups water
- 1 ham bone (optional, but recommended)
- Chop all vegetables and throw into large slow cooker/crock pot.
- Add lentils and ham and then cover all with chicken broth and water. Nestle the ham bone in, if using.
- Let cook on low for at least 4 hours to let the lentils soften – longer is just fine, up to 8-10 hours.
We have so much leftover ham from Christmas dinner. We’ve just been eating sandwich after sandwich, so this recipe looks like a delicious new treat in comparison! Hope you had a wonderful Christmas and Happy New Year!
I have a very similar recipe that I make in the crockpot too. Great w/ additions of spinach and Parmesan cheese!
Parmesan cheese is a great idea! It makes everything better in my books :)
Ham works really well in soup and this soup looks so heartwarming and delicious!!
Sometimes the ugliest looking recipes are the best! Sounds like perfect comfort food for winter!
So I’m not really a fan of ham but I love lentil soup. It sounds like a great combination and I bet the ham does give the soup such a deep flavor!
ooooh this reminds me so much of a soup my mom would make us as kids growing up…. my heart just grew a size or two.
merry christmas lovely! i hope it’s treating you well!
Wish I had some leftover ham so I could make this!
This looks fab! I still to this day never had a lentil, but your recipe makes me want to try them. I love how you can throw it all in a crockpot and be done with it!!
The combination of ham and lentils sounds wonderful. I can’t wait to taste this soup after I make it!
Just one important note, to make this gluten free you must use gluten free stock. OXO or Bovril won’t do. Gluten free stocks are available at health/natural food stores. They come in veggie, chicken or beef flavours and all are also vegetarian (yes, even the chicken and beef ones). Those who have to cook GF for themselves will already know this, but thought I should mention it in case someone was planning to make this for some special company that can’t have gluten. :)
Good point, thank you! I’ll change the recipe to specify that. :)
Yay! A gluten-free lentil recipe!!! In a moment of “hmm, I bet I can make something delicious with these!” I bought a bag of red lentils and then realized I have no good lentil recipes. And my favourite gf food blogger doesn’t like lentils, so she was no help at all! Thanks for posting this! :)
You’re welcome! I actually used green lentils for this one, but I don’t think red lentils will be a problem! I’ll send you my Carrot Lentil Soup recipe too that uses red lentils :)