Slovak Ham & Vegetable Soup

Total Time: 7 hrs 45 mins Preparation Time: 30 mins Cook Time: 7 hrs 15 mins

Ingredients

• Servings: 10
• 1 (3 lb) smoked lamb shoulder, washed (cottage ham)
• water
• 2 onions, finely chopped (about 1 1/3 cups)
• 1 -2 cup dried lima beans or 1 (14 ounce) can lima beans
• 3/4 teaspoon pepper
• 4 -5 sprigs parsley
• 1/4 cup barley
• 3 (20 ounce) packages frozen mixed vegetables (if you prefer you can use bags of individual vegetables, corn, broccoli, cauliflower, celery, carrot)
• 1 small cabbage, coarsely chopped
• 2 (10 3/4 ounce) cans condensed tomato soup
• 1 egg
• 1 cup flour
• 4 teaspoons water

Recipe

• 1 place ham in an 8 quart stock pot and add water to 1-inch below the top.
• 2 add onions, beans (if using dry beans), pepper, and parsley.
• 3 let simmer 5-6 hours.
• 4 to prepare steranka: mix together egg, flour, and water and knead until smooth (dough should be very stiff).
• 5 pinch off bits of dough (about the size of a pea) a lightly floured board.
• 6 when all of the pieces have been pinched off, drop into boiling water slowly so that the water doesn't stop boiling.
• 7 boil until all of the pieces come to the surface (3-5 minutes).
• 8 rinse with cold water and drain.
• 9 remove ham from the soup, and chip into bite sized pieces.
• 10 discard fat and bones, and return meat to soup.
• 11 add steranka and barley, and cook for 15 minutes.
• 12 add all vegetables (if using canned beans add with the vegetables instead of with the onions and seasonings), and simmer for 45 minutes.
• 13 add tomato soup, and simmer 15-20 minutes longer.