PULLED SMOKED HAM HOCK SOUP WITH WHITE BEANS AND VEGETABLES

SERVES: 6

PREP TIME: 5 minutes

COOKING TIME: 90 minutes

Making soup in March might seem a bit strange, but trust me, this soup is like no other. It's light, brothy, loaded full of nutritious vegetables, and the beans give it some bulk to fill you up.

I created this recipe as an affordable way to get flavour and vegetables into a meal. A lot of the taste comes from the smoked ham hock. I love to use these as they're economical and, if you have the time, you can extract heaps of flavour out of them.

I once tried to speed up the recipe by putting the ham hock in a pressure cooker. However, the fat in the ham hock turned the cooking broth into a cloudy mess. This recipe is about taking your time and gently simmering the hock, keeping all the fat at the top, so you get a nice clear broth.

INGREDIENTS

2 smoked ham hocks

1 tbsp vegetable stock powder

4 carrots, peeled and roughly chopped

4 courgettes, chopped chunky

1 tin haricot beans

1 tin lentils

120g packet spinach, stalks removed small amount of grated

Parmesan cheese

1 loaf wholemeal sourdough

METHOD

1 Put the two ham hocks in a large pot and cover with cold water. Add the stock powder and bring to the boil.

2 Reduce the heat, skim the scum from the top of the pot, and continue to cook for 45 minutes until the meat softens.

3 Add the carrots, courgette, beans, and lentils to the pot, return to the boil and cook for a further 10 minutes.

4 Remove the ham hocks. Allow to cool a little, then shred the meat (discarding the fat and skin) into six soup bowls.

5 Roughly chop the spinach and add to the pot. Season to taste, then ladle the soup over the meat in the bowls.

6 Serve with the warm or toasted sourdough and a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese.