Sustainable Eating - Lentil Soup with Leftover Ham Bone

As previously stated, I personally hate waste and one of the ways I reduce food waste is to use up my leftovers. It’s an important part of sustainable food recycling.

Lentil Soup with Leftover Ham Bone

All photo Copyright - ©2010 - La Casa e Il Giardino - picasaweb

Ingredients

1 pound bag of lentils

Leftover ham bone
2 ripe tomatoes (chopped)

1 cup celery chopped

1 cup carrots chopped

1/2 cup olive oil

1 onion chopped

2 cloves of garlic chopped

Salt and pepper to taste

Wash lentils thoroughly.  In a large pot, place lentils and ham bone and cover with water.  Bring it to a boil and then cover and simmer until tender. Remove the ham bone.  Remove pieces of ham from the bone and save.

In another pot, add the olive oil, onion and garlic.  Saute' for 2 minutes, add celery, carrots and tomatoes.  Simmer until carrots and celery are tender.  Add the cooked lentils, pieces of ham and adjust salt and pepper to taste.  At this point, if soup is too thick, add some water, mix well and simmer for few minutes.