Pea & Ham Soup – Making the most of leftovers.

Wasting food is seen as a criminal offence in our household and, as a vegan living with omnivores, I tend to get very upset if meat is ever wasted. I understand that meat is a required part of my family’s diet and so, over time, I have developed little tricks to make it stretch as far as possible. One way of doing this is to plan in advance how the leftovers will be used.

Home cooked ham (or gammon) is a very popular Sunday roast with my husband and son who are both real carnivores. The day I created my first pea and ham soup with leftover gammon my husband became a very happy man. Quite frankly I was just glad to have not only found a great way to use up the surplus meat, but also get sneak some veg into my salad dodging husband.

Pea & Ham Soup

A very warming and satisfying soup for a chilly day. The perfect combination of wholesome, nutritious vegetables and tender chunks of ham. This is one of my husband's all time favourite soups.

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Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 1 hour hr 10 minutes mins

Course Lunch, Starter

Cuisine English

Servings 6

Equipment

• Large heavy bottomed pan
• Blender (either jug or hand blender)

Ingredients

  

• 2 tbsp Mild olive oil / rapeseed oil Any oil that does not have an overpowering flavour will work.
• 250 g Cooked gammon Whole, NOT chopped
• 250 g Onions Peeled and chopped
• 250 g Leeks Washed thoroughly and chopped.
• 100 g Carrots Peeled and chopped
• 500 g Potatoes Peeled and chopped
• 1.5 litres Boiling water
• 2 cubes Chicken stock I prefer Knorr. Aldi Quixo is also quite good.
• 175 g Frozen or fresh peas
• Salt To taste
• White pepper To taste

Instructions

 

• In a large heavy bottomed pan, fry the onions and leeks until soft and sweet and just starting to brown. This should take about 10-15 minutes. If the onions and leeks begin to brown before they have softened then your heat is too high and should be reduced. In this instance add a little drop of water to ensure that they do not burn as burning will create a bitter flavour that you do not want in your soup.
• Add the carrots, potatoes, water, chicken stock cubes and whole piece of gammon to your pan. Bring to the boil and then reduce to a simmer. Simmer for around 45 minutes with a lid on (or just slightly ajar to allow steam to escape), until the vegetables and meat are tender.
• Remove the ham from the pan.
• Carefully pour the soup into the blender (if using a jug blender) and blend until smooth. You may need to do this in two batches. If using a hand blender simply remove the soup from the heat before blending until smooth.
• Using a fork and a sharp knife, shred the ham into chunks approximately 1.5cm in length. Add the ham back into the soup along with the peas. Heat gently for a couple of minutes until the peas are cooked through.
• Season to taste with salt and white pepper. Serve.

Notes

Although this soup is a wonderful way of using left overs, the flavour can be improved further still by purchasing a gammon joint purely for the purpose of making the soup. The cooking instructions for the meat will be slightly different, however. Gammon can be very salty and so I would recommend par boiling the gammon in water until the meat is half cooked. This will remove some of the salt.

I would then add the gammon to the soup while the vegetables are still chunky to allow the ham to cook through, the meat to become tender and the flavour of the ham to really soak into the vegetables. You may need to only add one stock cube rather than two if following this method as the ham will add a lot of flavour. Do note though, if you add the gammon straight to the soup without par boiling first you will end up with a very salty soup.

 

Keyword Flexitarian, Gluten free, Leftovers, Meat, Omnivore, Soup

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