Wednesday, July 14, 2010

McKenzie's ham and vegetable soup like a minestrone



Who is McKenzie? I have no idea... but their "Italian style soup mix" does the trick for me. A packet of dried "peas, beans and legumes".
This recipe is one of my favourites. It comes off the back of the packet of peas/beans/legumes that form the base of the soup. You can go from nothing to warm tummy soup in about 2 hours (most of that time is spent sitting around).
This makes a gigantic pot of soup.. probably enough for lots of people (I'm bad at estimating volumes so I'm not going to try.. just trust me that this is one huge pot of soup)
Be careful with your knife skills - however nicely you cut all your vegies will determine how nice the final dish looks.
1 bacon hock
1 pack of bacon bones (I think I had about 8 small bones)
375g Italian Style soup mix (or mixed dried lentils, chickpeas, beans)

1 large brown onion, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
2 carrots, diced
4 tbsp flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 cans chopped tomatoes
3 cups cabbage, chopped (about 1/2 a small cabbage)
4 tbsp brown rice
3/4 cup small shell pasta
Salt and pepper

Parmesan cheese and fresh bread, to serve

In a saucepan place the soup mix and the bacon bones and hock. Cover with 5 cups of water. Bring to the boil. Simmer gently for 45 minutes with the lid on. Keep an eye on it and add more water as necessary.

Remove the bones from the mixture. Carefully remove all the meat off the bones, removing all fat and skin. Cut the meat into small dice and set aside.

Skim the fat and scum off the top of the bean mixture water.

In a large saucepan gently saute the onion in 2 tbsp olive oil for 3-4 minutes. Add the celery, carrot, parsley and garlic. Saute for another 5-10 minutes or until the vegies are soft.

Add the canned tomatoes, reserved bacon meat, cabbage, rice, pasta bean mixture and liquid and 3 cups of water. Simmer gently for 20-30 minutes or until the vegies are tender.

Thin with water as necessary. Season very generously with pepper and salt.

Serve with parmesan cheese and bread and butter.

2 comments:

Lis said...

This is a winner. Hard to find the recipe though. The essential part of the recipe is what is missing from McKenzie's packet. "Cook McKenzie's Italian Soup Mix, together with the ham hock, according to either of the methods listed opposite." Grrr! I didn't have the other directions, and Pinterest was no help. Neither was Google. Both of those were error sites.
But you saved the day, the ham hock and soup mix are on now. So thank you Winsome Mary.
Now I just have to figure out how to save the recipe. Any ideas?

Cheers, Lis

Lis said...

I hope I'm not breaching any copyright here, and that you don't mind Winsome, but I saved your recipe to Pinterest. Twice it seems! Just to be sure.
Cheers
Lis