Soup and Mini Loaves

At Christmas time after we dispensed of the last of the Christmas ham, I put the bone into a bag in the freezer with the intention of making soup. I finally used it in the weekend to make pea and ham soup. I haven’t shown a photo as I found it difficult to make a bowl of soup look very inspiring! It was the first time I have made pea and ham soup though and it was delicious! I simmered the bone in a large pot of water for about an hour and a half. In the meantime I semi cooked a 500g bag of split peas. I then took the bone out of the water, chopped up the meat, put it back into the stock with the peas and discarded the bone. I actually added a packet of King’s pea and ham soup base at this point, but you wouldn’t have to. I simmered the soup for another hour and then seasoned it to taste. It was so yummy and has only improved with flavour as the week has gone on.

To go with the soup I made these little mini loaves. They are essentially savoury muffins, but I thought the little loaves looked much cuter. I used a fairly standard muffin base, adding grated tasty cheese, sliced salami , chopped tomato and pesto. But you could vary the flavours depending on what you had in the fridge. These freeze well, so you could make a double batch and freeze half to have on hand.



Pesto and Salami Mini Loaves

1 c self raising flour
¼ tsp salt
½ c grated tasty cheese
50g chopped salami
1 egg
2 tbsp olive oil (I used parmesan infused olive oil)
¾ c milk
2 tbsp pesto

· Combine flour, salt, cheese and salami
· Whisk together the egg, oil and milk, then pour into dry ingredients and mix lightly
· Swirl through the pesto and spoon into mini loaf ins
Bake at 200c for 15-18 minutes