Yotam Ottolenghi’s winter soup recipes | Soup (2024)

Ham hock and red lentil soup

I can think of few things as comforting as lentil soup, and this one is a belter. Serves eight.

2 smoked ham hocks (about 1.7kg in all)
2 large carrots, quartered
2 large onions, peeled: 1 cut into quarters, the other finely diced
3 sticks celery, quartered
1 tsp allspice berries
½ tsp black peppercorns
2 tbsp olive oil
2 red chillies, deseeded and finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
1 tbsp tomato paste
400g tin chopped tomatoes
350g red lentils
2 tsp sweet smoked paprika
2 small cinnamon sticks
4 strips shaved orange skin, plus 200ml orange juice (ie, from about 3 oranges)
Salt and black pepper

Put the hocks in a large pot with the carrots, quartered onion, celery, allspice and peppercorns. Add water to cover, then bring to a boil. Turn down the heat and leave to simmer gently for three hours, skimming off any fat and impurities that come to the surface and adding water as needed to keep the meat submerged. When the ham is almost falling apart, transfer the hocks to a large bowl and leave to cool down. Strain the stock and discard the aromatics and veg.

Meanwhile, make the salsa. Put the caraway and oil in a small frying pan on a medium heat and fry for a minute or two, until the seeds start to sizzle. Take off the heat, stir in the parsley and an eighth of a teaspoon of salt, and set aside.

Pull the meat from the hocks and use your hands or a knife to shred it into 1-2cm pieces. Add the ham to the soup, warm through for five minutes, then ladle into bowls and serve with the salsa spooned on top.

Spicy chard soup with sourdough and feta dumplings

For the dumplings
1 tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, peeled and finely chopped
2½ tbsp plain flour
4 slices sourdough, crusts removed, lightly toasted and roughly blitzed in a food processor (170g net weight)
½ tsp freshly grated nutmeg
40g pine nuts, lightly toasted
20g parsley, finely chopped
1½ tsp thyme leaves, finely chopped
Finely grated zest of 2 lemons
2 eggs, beaten
140ml chicken stock (or good-quality vegetable stock – do not use bouillon)
125g feta, crumbled into 1-2cm pieces
Salt and black pepper

First make the dumplings. Put the oil in a medium frying pan on a medium-high flame. Once hot, fry the onion, stirring a few times, for about four minutes, until soft and translucent. Transfer to a medium bowl, add all the other dumpling ingredients apart from the feta. Add three-quarters of a teaspoon of salt and mix to combine, then add the feta and mix again, taking care the cheese doesn’t break up too much. Using your hands, form the mixture into round 40g dumplings, tightly compressing them as you roll so they’ll stay intact while cooking. You should end up with 18 dumplings. Set aside.

Now get on with the broth. Heat the oil in an extra-large pot on a medium-high flame and, once hot, fry the garlic, onion, spices and tomato paste for five minutes, stirring often, until the onions and garlic are soft and fragrant. Add the chard stalks, saute for 10 minutes, stirring frequently, then stir in the tomatoes, stock, lemon juice, a litre and a half of water and a teaspoon and a quarter of salt. Bring up to a simmer, cook for eight minutes, then add the chard leaves and cook for seven minutes more.

When you are ready to eat, gently drop the dumplings into the simmering soup, poach for 10 minutes and serve.

Yellow split pea, burnt aubergine and peanut soup

This thick soup is a meal in itself, but you can bulk it out further by serving it with a bowl of rice. Panch phoran is a whole-seed mix from eastern India. You can buy it in most supermarkets and Asian food stores, or make your own by mixing equal amounts of fenugreek, fennel, black mustard, nigella and cumin seeds. Serves eight.

If you have a gas stove, ventilate the kitchen and roast the aubergines directly on an open flame for about 15 minutes, turning them once or twice with tongs, until their skin is charred all over and the aubergines are collapsing. Transfer to a bowl and, when cool enough to handle, cut the aubergines in half and scoop the flesh into a bowl; discard the skins. If you have an electric hob, char the aubergines in a very hot griddle pan for 45 minutes, turning them more often.

Heat the oven to 150C/300F/gas mark 2. Put the peanuts on an oven tray and roast for 25 minutes, until golden brown. Leave to cool, then blitz 80g of the nuts to a fine crumb, roughly chop the rest, and keep the two separate.

Stir the smoked aubergine flesh into the soup, along with any juices that have leached out while cooling, and use the back of a spoon roughly to mash it into the lentils. Cook, stirring, for a minute or two and serve with the salsa spooned on top.

• Yotam Ottolenghi is chef/patron of Ottolenghi and Nopi in London.