Lentil Soup with Pumpkin & Cheese Scones

I was really excited when Toni at the wonderful Boulder Locavore  blog suggested that I add a recipe to her special Thanksgiving recipe link even though we don’t celebrate this particular holiday here in Scotland. Despite not participating in the Thanksgiving festivities, I am certainly thankful for all the wonderful recipes being posted and I’ll definitely be trying some of them out soon.   Indeed, as I will be cooking Christmas dinner for 10 adults and my three children, I have been looking for inspiration and thanks to Toni, have definitely found some here!

Lentil Soup is a traditional Scottish soup and a family favourite.  It is a useful one for this time of year; warming and delicious, and the ham hough used in the recipe can easily be substituted with some left over roast ham.  The pumpkin and Cheese scones are a relatively new creation – following some experimental pumpkin baking - but are a perfect accompaniment to the soup.  They are also seasonal and lend themselves nicely to the lentil soup for a tasty winter lunch.

Firstly, the soup...

Lentil Soup

Ingredients:

3 Large Carrots

1 Onion

Ham Hough (700g)

200g Red Lentils

1.5 ltr Chicken Stock

1 Tablespoon Oil (olive or vegetable)

Method:

In a large pan heat the oil and lightly brown the outside of the Ham hough. 

Dice the carrots and onion (I leave these quite chunky as I blend the soup at the end, however, you can chop them smaller if you wish to have a chunkier soup)

Add the veggies to the pan with the ham and sauté.  Add the lentils and heat through for a couple of minutes. 

Add the stock and a good grinding of black pepper.  Don’t add salt until the end as the ham will probably impart all the salt you will need.

Bring to the boil.  Reduce the heat and simmer for approximately 1 ½ hours.

Leave to cool before removing the ham.  You can remove the ham from the bone and add it to the soup (either before or after blending) or use it for something else (I made a risotto!)

I blend the soup, I prefer it this way and my little girls won’t eat it with identifiable chunks of veggies visible, but when I was growing up, my mum always mashed her lentil soup rather than blending.

Garnish with some crispy bacon, pumpkin seed oil or a splash of cream.

Serve with...

 

Pumpkin & Cheese Scones

Ingredients

450g Plain Flour

3 Teaspoons Baking Powder

Pinch of Salt

2 eggs lightly beaten

110g Margarine or Butter

Handful of Mature Scottish Cheddar

3 Tablespoons pureed pumpkin (approx 350g pumpkin flesh cooked, drained and pureed)

25ml Milk

Squeeze of Lemon Juice

Method

Preheat your oven to 220 ^oC (200 ^oC fan).  Grease or line a large baking tray.

Sieve the flour, baking powder and salt into a large bowl.  Add the margarine and rub together until like rough breadcrumbs.

Stir in the beaten egg and cheese.  

In a small bowl add the squeeze of lemon juice to the milk - it will thicken and sour.  Add this to the ingredients in the large bowl. 

Add the pumpkin one tablespoon at a time and mix in but don’t over mix.  The dough will be quite sticky.

Turn the mixture out onto a floured surface and dust with flour.  Flatten down with your hand as it will be too sticky to roll.  It should be about 1 and a quarter inches thick. Cut out the scones, I use a 3 ^5/8 “ cutter
.
This makes 6-7 big scones – a scone has to be big!


Place on a greased baking tray (spaced quite widely apart) and bake for 10-12 minutes.