Oldest brother Jay (of “Uncle Jake’s Favorite Recipes,” to regular readers) came to our house for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day meals, and generously provided a wonderfully cured, spiral cut ham for the latter (purchased from New Braunfels Smokehouse).
Even before he brought it to our door Christmas Eve, he had been warning that it was “huge,” but went a step further by emailing a few of his preferred recipes for using leftover ham. I had intended to try at least one of them, but MT beat me to it, finding and successfully trying two terrific recipes, leaving just enough ham (and the bone, of course) for me to make this soup from his collection.
It’s pretty straightforward, even if — like me — you don’t do a lot of soups. Long-time readers know I’ve cooked my share — including pumpkin, French onion, shrimp bisque, pan-roasted garlic and Italian wedding — for these articles. But until now I don’t think I’ve ever made soup from the bones of ham or any other meat. That’s always been MT’s domain. And since I’m the one who typically uses the trimmed ham in new leftover recipes, we seem to have flipped roles this holiday.
MT deemed it “very tasty,” as did I. And while I initially had concerns it would be too salty, both of us agreed it came out just fine in that regard.
Note that Jay’s recipe calls for a lot of canned veggies, something I rarely use. Frozen — or better-yet, fresh — are always preferred in our house. But we had all the suggested cans on the shelves, so I decided to try it that way. I feel I did make one mistake, opening the corn and dumping the whole can into the broth without draining the liquid. It was a momentary lapse, likely brought on by how rarely I use canned versions, and I drained the others before adding to the soup.
I don’t think it makes much difference, but it keeps from watering down the broth too much, and almost certainly keeps the taste of the veggies as the primary focus. The next time I make it, I’ll use frozen or fresh — Jay’s recipe mentions that option, suggesting it may need to cook a little longer so the veggies are fully done.
The other thing that struck me as a bit unusual: The recipe doesn’t call for sauteing the onion and celery in a little oil before adding the water to make the broth. I followed the recommendation of just adding them with the water and straining them out, but suspect a quick saute would have enhanced the flavor.
This makes a lot of soup, so either do it when you know you’ll have a hungry crowd or consider cutting things down — something made easier if you opt for fresh/frozen veggies, as using half-a-can of something can be a bit problematic.
Dobru chut!
Ham and vegetable soup (Uncle Jake’s Favorite Recipes)
10 cups water
1 ham hock or beef bone with some meat (consider keeping already-trimmed meat to add to the soup)
1 small onion, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
2 cups carrots, chopped
2 cups potatoes, chopped
1 can tomato soup
1 can cut green beans
1 can whole corn
1 can peas
1½ cups beef broth
1 tablespoon (or so) dried parsley
Salt and pepper to taste
Alphabet pasta or noodles if desired, cooked separately.
Bring 10 cups water to boil in large soup pot. Add soup bone, onion, celery, salt, pepper, and parsley. Cover and simmer 1 hour.
Strain and discard onion and celery. Return broth to pot. Simmer carrots and potatoes in broth for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, remove all possible meat from bone. When carrots and potatoes are cooked, add meat to pot. Then add beef broth, tomato soup, beans, corn and peas. Heat to boiling.
Serve as is or with alphabets/noodles.