Instant Pot Lentil Soup with Ham

Inspired by one of my faves, natural healing teacher Barbara O'Neill, I for the first time started making lentils...and we love them!

This Instant Pot Lentil Soup is made with a leftover ham bone (or any ham you have), for a super easy, yummy, inexpensive and freezable weeknight meal! 

My family talks about how you can feel the nourishment in every bite. And others I have made it for have used the same word! The lentils bring a great source of protein, and, overall, it is just so nutritious.

Now this is the kind of comfort food I love to serve!

Ingredients

• 3 T butter
• 2 onions, diced
• 4 ribs celery, diced
• 4 carrots, diced
• 2-4 garlic cloves, diced (If you don't have any, it's still good without it though)
• 2-4 jalapeno peppers (if you like it spicy)
• 1 ham bone or 6 oz. ham can be used (optional)
• 1 lb. dry lentils sorted through and rinsed
• 6 c. chicken stock/broth or veggie stock, water, or a mixture
• 1 tsp red pepper flakes (optional, to add more spice)
• salt and black pepper (see notes)
• chopped fresh parsley for garnish (optional)

Instructions

1. Turn pressure cooker to the "saute'" setting. Melt butter (3 T.) and saute' onion, celery, carrots for 5+ minutes, until softened.
2. Add the lentils, chicken stock (6 cups) and ham bone (or ham). Turn off the saute' function.
3. Cover the pressure cooker and set to manual, high pressure for 15 minutes.
4. Allow the pressure to naturally release for 10-15 minutes. Then quick release the pressure valve (This is optional. If you are making it ahead of time, you can let all the pressure naturally release and let it stay on a "warm" setting until ready to eat.)
5. If you used a ham bone, remove it from the soup and remove the ham meat on it. Add the ham meat back into the soup.
6. Taste and season with salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes if necessary.

Notes

• Serves 6-8
• About the salt: If you use salty chicken broth, you may not need to add any salt at all since ham is also usually very salty
• If you want to use a frozen ham bone, you shouldn't need to adjust the cooking time.
• For a vegetarian version, omit the ham, use more salt and pepper and make sure to use vegetable stock or water instead of chicken. For a vegan version, use olive oil instead of butter.
• If you don't eat pork, you can substitute the ham bone for a smoked turkey leg
• To make this in your slow cooker, add all ingredients (omitting butter) to slow cooker and cook on low for 6-7 hours or high for 3 hours, or until lentils are cooked to desired tenderness.
• To make this on your stovetop, saute' veggies as instructed in a large pot. After adding the remaining ingredients, bring to a boil, cover and simmer for about 20 minutes, or until desired tenderness is reached.
• If you refrigerate it, it will thicken. For leftovers, you can add a little water to it to get it to the desired consistency.
• Ham usually comes cured/smoked, which means it's cooked and ready to eat. However, sometimes stores sell "fresh ham", which means it's uncooked. Do NOT use fresh ham for this recipe -- use already cooked, smoked, and/or cured ham.
• This recipe works in a 6 qt. or bigger instant pot.