Slow-Cooker Ham and Vegetable Soup

My kitchen is currently in tatters, due to some disastrous building work, and we have been surviving on one hob for the past few months, as our induction hob gave up the ghost. The kind man from Miele came out and charged me about £100 to tell me that it would cost more to fix than to replace.... nevertheless! A new hob is on order and should be with us in a week. Hooray! My dad will be pleased.

This soup takes about 15 minutes' prep, then you put the slow cooker on as you leave in the morning, and it's ready for dinner, save a bit of chopping and blending. The children were adamant that their favourite soup ever was canned tomato soup (I have a soft spot for this too), but they deigned to scrape their bowls clean, which made me happy. It's filling and comforting

 

Ingredients

• 1 onion, peeled and diced into 5-8mm pieces
• 1 carrot, peeled and diced into 5-8mm pieces
• 1 stick of celery, diced into 5-8mm pieces
• 1 floury potato, peeled and diced into 5-8mm pieces
• 1 slice raw ginger, peeled
• 3 ripe tomatoes
• 1 corn on the cob, stringy bits removed
• The remains of a ham shank, skin/fat removed
• 2 tbsp each of red lentils, pearl barley and green and yellow split peas (or use a handful of soup mix, such as this one)
• 1 tsp dried mixed herbs
• A generous amount of ground black pepper

Serves 5-6

 

Instructions

• Peel the tomatoes by scoring a cross into the base of each one, then submerge in freshly boiled water for 10 minutes. Drain the tomatoes and peel the skins off. Chop roughly
• Rinse the pulses under running water
• Place the ham shank into the bottom of the slow cooker, and add the onion, carrot, celery, potato, ginger, diced tomatoes, corn on the cob (break into half if necessary) and pulses
• Add the dried, mixed herbs and ground black pepper and give everything a stir to mix
• Cover with water and cook on low for 10 hours
• When the soup is cooked, remove the ham shank, ginger and corn on the cob. Place about 1/4 of the soup mixture into a jug and blend until smooth. Return the blend to the soup
• Using a sharp knife, scrape the corn kernels from the cob and return to the soup
• Remove the meat from the ham shank and using a couple of forks, shred the meat thoroughly. Return to the soup
• Give the soup a good stir and add a little more water, if it is too thick. If it is too thin, remove some of the soup, blend and return, and mix
• Serve in big bowls with thick slices of toast (even better if you can melt some cheese on top)

Slow-Cooker Ham and Vegetable Soup