Well, now that Easter has past I looked in the fridge to see what was leftover. If you have been a loyal blog reader you will know that the best way to utilize leftovers is…that’s right SOUP!
I just happened to have a ham bone with a nice amount of meat on it (the best base for a good soup is stock, with ham soup you make the stock simultaneously with the soup) along with an assortment of vegetables including a sweet potato and some quinoa. Perfect for an Old Fashioned Ham Soup.
In keeping with our antioxidants’ theme sweet potatoes have a unique antioxidant while quinoa is a complete protein containing all nine of the essential amino acids.
Old Fashioned Ham and Sweet Potato Soup with Quinoa
Makes 4 x 2 cup portions
Prep time: 15 minutes
Total time: 1 hour 45 minutes
1 ham bone (hopefully with some meat on it)
8 cups (2 Litres) water
1 medium onion diced
1 carrot diced
2 celery diced
4 cloves garlic minced
1 sweet potato peeled and diced
1 tbsp (15 ml) thyme chopped
3 tbsp (45 ml) quinoa
1 tbsp (15 ml) Compliments Pure Olive Oil [1]
- In a soup pot on medium heat add the oil and let it warm. Add the onions and sweat until they are soft. Add the garlic, carrot and celery and cook for 5 minutes. Add the water and ham bone, bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer
- When there is 30 minutes left in the cooking time add the sweet potato and thyme
- When there is 10 minutes left in the cooking time, remove the bone and add the quinoa. Remove the useable meat from the bone and chop it up before putting it back in the soup. Taste before adding any salt, the ham may have added enough.
Nutritional Analysis per Serving:
Energy: 240 kcal
Protein: 15 g
Fat: 6 g
Carbohydrates: 33 g
So clear out your fridge and give this recipe a try, I hope that you like it!
Regards,
Chef Ian
P.S. I cooked the soup for the least amount of time possible to extract flavours from the ham bone, the longer you cook the soup the better just do not add the sweet potatoes in too early or they will disintegrate. A slow cooker/ crock pot would be perfect.