52 New-To-Us Soups - #3 Ham Hock & Lentil

It tastes a lot better than it looks.

Adapted from Emerill Lagasse

Ingredients

Water

2 cups of leftover Stock*

1-2 smoked ham hocks

1 1/2 cups orange lentils

1 medium onion, diced

2 celery stalks, chopped

2 carrots, chopped

1/2 head garlic, peeled and minced

Bay Leaf

Palm full of dried thyme (or several sprigs or fresh)

Directions

1. Pour stock into a large pot, place the ham hocks in and fill the remainder with water.  Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cook covered for 1 hour.
2. Remove hocks from stock and strip the meat into cubes, pour back into the pot.
3. Add remaining ingredients and bring back to a boil, then reduce again and simmer for 30 minutes.

*While chicken or beef stock will work well, I used a particularly delicious leftover stock from the spare ribs we made for dinner the previous night.  It could be duplicated by pureeing a carrot, onion, celery stick, garlic cloves and tomato paste and allowing that to cook in the water and the ham hock.  Simply strain the pulp from the stock in between step 2 and 3.