When I first pieced together a few different lentil ham bone soup recipes, I referred to it as my “experimental lentil” soup. For the past ten years, I’ve been cooking it every fall. I can’t recall the last time I prepared such a small batch, but what is described here is just one recipe. It works well for freezing in small portions for lunches.
| Prep Time: | 20 mins |
| Cook Time: | 20 mins |
| Total Time: | 40 mins |
| Servings: | 6 |
Ingredients
- 8 cups water
- 2 ⅔ tablespoons chicken bouillon granules
- 1 ham bone with some meat
- 2 cups lentils
- 2 stalks celery, chopped
- 1 cup chopped carrots
- 1 green bell pepper, chopped
- ½ onion, chopped
- 1 teaspoon dried marjoram
- ¼ teaspoon crushed bay leaf
Instructions
- Bring water and chicken bouillon granules to a boil in a stock pot; stir to dissolve bouillon. Place ham bone in boiling broth, reduce heat to medium-low, and stir in lentils. Simmer until lentils begin to soften, about 10 minutes.
- Stir celery, carrots, green bell pepper, onion, marjoram, and bay leaf into broth and simmer until lentils and vegetables are tender, 10 to 20 minutes.
- Turn off heat and remove ham bone from soup. Cut ham from bone and cube meat. Return meat to soup and discard bone.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 216 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 38 g |
| Cholesterol | 0 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 14 g |
| Protein | 16 g |
| Saturated Fat | 0 g |
| Sodium | 539 mg |
| Sugars | 6 g |
| Fat | 1 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
I followed the recipe without any changes. A great way to use up the leftover Christmas ham. Hearty and flavorful.
Delicious soup! I made the mistake of puréing the lentils and vegetables with my immersion blender—that made it an unappetizing color! Added a little cream just because.
Awesome soup! My only change was to use chicken broth in place of the water. The family loved it! Will definitely be making it again!!
My wife loves it. As do I. What an easy simple recipe. Thanks
Wonderful recipe! Fairly quick and uses ingredients commonly on hand. Used the ham bone I had in the freezer from Christmas. With a multigrain muffin, a perfect cozy dinner on this frigid, snowy day!
Very good. I had ham broth in the freezer so I used that instead of the water and the chicken bouillon. I didn’t have a bell pepper so I added peas. I also I also used a 1.5 lbs of ham instead of just a bit of ham from the ham bone. My husband and I really enjoyed it. My 5 year old didn’t care of the texture (he has texture issues) but he liked the taste and he did end up eating the portion we gave him. My 3 year old is very reluctant to try anything new. We finally got her to try it and she ate her portion as well.
It was good but the recipe didn’t specify the color of lentil. I used red – big mistake. The red lentils broke down to mush. We feel a heartier lentil such as green, might hold up better. Also, we will put more veggies in next time. The flavor was good, but I will tweak it to our taste next time. Don’t use red lentils!
My “go to” recipe for lentil soup, easy and delicious. The only changes I made were eliminating the green pepper because it doesn’t agree with me and adding some leftover cooked kale from the fridge.
I followed this recipe exactly and it was delicious, my first lentil soup and I will definitely make it again and again
I’ve made this several times and it is a fantastic way to use the leftover ham bone from that holiday spiral ham. I reserve the drippings from the original ham cooking event and set them aside for several days waiting to make this soup. I leave the bone in longer and experiment with other veggies and different colors of lentil.
excellent recipe! I made the broth from a ham bone. I put the bone, an onion cut in half, 2 stalks of celery, 2 carrots, tbsp apple cider vinegar and half tbsp salt in my instant pot (can use crock pot) and filled with water. Put instant pot on manual for 120 minutes and went to bed. After the 120 min was up, it switched to warm for about 10 hours. I strained the broth, put back in instant pot for 30 minutes with ham, lentils, onions, celery, marjoram, carrots. It was amazing!!
Hearty cold weather soup. I roasted the veggies including a peeled cubed sweet potato which added a touch of sweetness and starchiness. I also added garlic, smoked paprika, can of diced tomatoes, and about a teaspoon of diced chili peppers for a little spice. In addition to the ham, I added two andouille sausages. An optional dollop of sour cream added creaminess. With the extras, this easily makes 12 servings.
I made this recipe with no changes. We didn’t eat it until the next day. I put it in. The slow cooker for a couple hours the day we ate it. It is delicious
Health warning: never CRUSH a bay leaf into ANYTHING. The edges are razor sharp even after being stewed and can do serious damage to the digestive tract or even cause choking. They give excellent flavor when used WHOLE and removed before serving. They CAN be used powdered but no ordinary kitchen grinder can powder them to a safe degree.
So obviously I wasn’t done with my review and there’s no way to edit so I’ll just start over. I adjusted the ingredients a bit but did use them all. I started with ham bones I had saved and frozen from two spiral sliced hams we had cooked on the pellet grill recently. They made a really rich stock and after removing the bones and straining the broth I added chopped slices that I had also saved. The soup was thick and flavorful and my husband and I both thought it was very very good. He actually harvested the lentils that I used so that made it extra special.
I left out the bell pepper because that is an allergy trigger for my family but it is easy quick and good.
yes love it
Delicious! I used a bag of mixed lentils, I also had a lot of juice from when I cooked the ham and used this in place of some of the water. Very good!
Perfection!! I added 2 more cups of water and a little more chicken and beef stock). Simmer red for an hour -Added more carrots and celery but other than that I followed directions exactly and it’s magnificent
Made in crock pot ,soaked beans overnight,
Quick and easy! And super delicious 🙂