Recipes

Smoked hock and vegetable soup

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Ingredients

  • •
    1 tablespoon vegetable oil
  • •
    1 onion, cut into thin wedges
  • •
    3L chicken stock
  • •
    1 x 1-1.2kg large smoked ham hock
  • •
    3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
  • •
    1 yellow carrot, thinly sliced
  • •
    1 broccoli head cut into 2-3cm
  • •
    2 medium zucchini, cut into 1cm dice
  • •
    2 cups podded fresh peas
  • •
    2 bunches asparagus, cut on an angle
  • •
    Juice of 1 lemon, or to taste
  • •
    1 cup loosely packed parsley, finely chopped
  • •
    Freshly crushed black pepper

Method

  1. 1.
    Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and stir occasionally until tender.
  2. 2.
    Add stock, ham hock and garlic and bring to the boil. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer, adding more water as necessary to keep ham hock just covered, continue to cook until meat is very tender, about 2 hours.
  3. 3.
    Remove ham hock from soup and, when cool enough to handle, shred or coarsely chop meat, discarding the skin and fat. Return the cooked meat to soup, bring up to a simmer.
  4. 4.
    Add carrot and cook for 5 minutes. Add broccoli and cook for 5 minutes then add zucchini, peas and asparagus, and simmer uncovered until vegetables are tender, approximately another 5 minutes.
  5. 5.
    Serve soup warm, seasoned to taste with lemon juice, chopped parsley, and a generous grind of cracked pepper.