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.



SUSTAINABLE EATING - Leftover Turkey Burgers

Bored of leftover turkey sandwiches?  Why not try these healthy turkey burgers.

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Ingredients
4 tablespoons of olive oil
1 green and 1 red pepper finely chopped
6 scallions finely chopped or red onion
1 1/2 pounds ground turkey or fresh turkey meat
2 medium eggs slightly beaten
2 tablespoons of parsley chopped
1/2 cup bread crumbs

Colorful chopped onions and peppers being sauteed

Procedure

In a food processor, finely grind the leftover turkey (white and dark meat).

In a small pan, add 2 tablespoons of olive oil, sauté scallions and peppers (about 6 to 10 minutes).  Set aside to cool off for few minutes.

Add the pepper and scallion mixture into the ground turkey.  Mix well.  Add the eggs and parsley and continue to mix well.

Place the breadcrumbs on a piece of wax paper.  Take enough of the turkey mixture to make a burger.  Place the burger on the breadcrumbs and press lightly.  Turn over and do the same.
In a non-stick frying pan, add the additional oil and sauté' the burgers few at a time, turning once with a spatula. Approximately 10 minutes. Serve.

turkey burgers before sauteing