Black Forest Ham and Lentil Soup

Sometimes, instead of actually preparing and cooking a meal or having a sad little ready-meal, a good, thick, warming winter soup (followed by some really interesting cheese and good bread, along with crisp English celery and sweet grapes), can be not just quicker but also very satisfying. And if the cheese should be accompanied by a special Burgundy or, as Christmas approaches, some rather lovely port, it can be even more satisfying! One of the best speedy soup I know is made with tinned lentils and the lovely smoky Black Forest ham that is sold in Sainsbury’s.

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  Serves 6

Ingredients
2 carrots
2 medium onions
2 celery stalks
1 x 70 g pack Black Forest ham (preferably Sainsbury’s), cut into strips
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 x 410 g tin cooked green lentils (preferably Sainsbury’s)
21/2 pints (1.5 litres) vegetable stock, made with Marigold Swiss vegetable bouillon powder
1 x 230 g tin chopped tomatoes
8 oz (225 g) cabbage
1 x 20 g pack fresh flat-leaf parsley
salt and freshly milled black pepper

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This recipe first appeared in You magazine.

Method

If you have the cheats’ mini-chopper that we have recommended before (see below), you can make light work of chopping the carrots, onions and celery small – do these in batches, followed by the ham and the garlic. If not, a full-sized processor will do the whole lot in seconds.Then all you do is heat the oil in a large pan, add the vegetables and ham and toss them around, uncovered – with the heat high – until they brown a little (7-8 minutes). Next add the drained lentils, stock and tinned tomatoes. Stir well, season with salt and freshly milled black pepper, and simmer with a lid on for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, shred the cabbage finely, and when the ten minutes are up, add that to the rest of the ingredients and continue to simmer, covered, for a further five minutes. Finally, chop or process the parsley and add it to the soup just before serving.

How to Cheat Hero Ingredient
1 x 70 g pack Sainsbury’s Black Forest ham
1 x 410 g tin Sainsbury’s cooked green lentils

How to Cheat Equipment Hero
Kenwood CH180 Mini Chopper Available from Woolworths, Argos, larger Boots stores, Sainsbury’s House of Fraser, Allders and Safeway Delia says, 'If you want to short-circuit lots of tedious chopping and knife sharpening, I’m really enthusiastic about this ingenious mini food processor. 1 tablespoon chopped parsley: 2 seconds, ¾ packet watercress: 4-5 seconds, a finely chopped onion… you name it – thousands of fast little processes that save you time.'

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