Ham and Any-Veggie Soup

Pregnancy gets me all wired up weird. All I wanna eat is spicy (and sometimes) sour stuff - I have been having the maddest cravings for Sarawak Laksa - and my tastebuds seem extremely sensitive to anything too sweet.

So I hardly want to eat the desserts/cookies I used to want to - which is fine, really. But even fruit tastes sickeningly sweet sometimes.

Which is no good, of course - if there are three main pieces of advice I take the most seriously about pregnancy, they are - exercise/stay fit, stay happy and stress-free and eat lots of fruits and vegetables.

I am a huge fusspot when it comes to veggies. I often don't order them, or refuse to eat a lot when someones else does - because too many places use excess oil, or I just don't like the taste. So I ate lots of fruit.

But now that fruit can be a real turnoff sometimes, I was feeling somewhat anxious that I was not providing my little jelly bean enough nutrition (yes, I hope it's a her).

Well - you know how it is - if you can't find what you want when you want to order/buy it, then you just gotta make it yourself.

This is a ham-flavoured vegetable soup, inspired (somewhat) by this recipe. For a meatless version one could always use parmesan cheese to add a little more flavour.

The vegetables are just what I could find in my nearby Jaya Grocer - organic carrots, celery and french beans, onions and fennel went into the soup. I also got very cheap ham chips from there. I made a big batch for consumption throughout the week (plan got a little thwarted when I had to travel on business). Everytime I reheated the soup I also added (organic) spinach leaves for a further veggie boost. oh, and I also threw in a can of pinto beans, but that didn't work out so well - the grainy texture of the beans kinda took away from the crunch of the veggies.

My guess is that this recipe adapts to whatever mild-flavoured produce you can find in your local grocery - cauliflower, green cabbage, even some fresh button mushrooms maybe.

In fact, it's hardly a recipe - just cube up the aromatics - onion, celery, carrots - and slice the fennel into rings. Get the bacon and ham going with a little oil in a big heavy-bottomed pot. Stir the mixture every now and then until the bacon renders its fat. Add the aromatics, and a pinch of salt. Stir to coat with all that bacon and ham fat. Reduce heat to low, cover and let it all sweat and for the vegetables to release their sweetness. Stir often to ensure nothing sticks to the bottom and burns. Cover with water/chicken/vegetable stock (I used water and added a few dashes of chicken stock concentrate). Bring to the boil, add the drained beans and sliced French beans. Cook until the veggies are still crisp and retain some of their bite. Salt and pepper to taste. Just before serving, add the spinach and cook just enough to wilt the leaves.

I like mine with lots freshly ground black pepper and spinach, and for AK I grate a little parmesan over as well.

When AK first saw what I made he expressed disappointment that I was making a "plain" soup. Then he promptly slurped down 3 bowls. Hmph.