Smoked Ham and Lentil Stew

What's one to do with the bone from a perfectly good roast smoked ham?  I had plenty of the latter left after mine and Andrew's private Thanksgiving feast this past Sunday, as Andrew had rather zealously brought home a twelve pound ham for the two of us.  A good deal of it went into two separate pot pies and several ham sandwiches, but still- I had the bone.  And of course, being the soup lover that I am, I knew exactly what to do with it.
     This is an extremely simple and satisfying recipe.  It consists of simply combining all of the ingredients into a large pot for about two and a half hours and results into a filling, hearty meal.  As a bonus, not only did I have all the meat on the bone, but I had roughly a pound or two left from the fatty end of the ham itself.  This significantly bolstered the recipe in terms of volume, flavor, and filling ability.



Ingredients

1 lb lentils, rinsed
1 leftover ham bone
1-2 lbs ham, cubed into bite-sized pieces (and trimmed of most of its fat)
3 medium potatoes, cubed into bite-sized pieces 
2 large onions, coarsely chopped
1/2 lb baby carrots, chopped into bite-sized pieces
6 cloves fresh crushed garlic
12 cups water
black ground pepper, to taste
cumin, to taste

Reserving the cubed ham pieces, combine all of the above ingredients and stir well into a large pot.  Bring to a simmer, and simmer over low heat for about two hours and thirty minutes, occasionally stirring.  This allows the ham bone to turn the water into a delicious ham stock, and for the cook to be able to strip the bone of any stubborn pieces of meat.  Remove the bone and allow it to cool after this time has passed, and add your reserved ham pieces.  Once the ham bone has cooled, salvage what meat you can and put it into the soup, discarding the rest.

That's really all there is to it- low heat and patience yields one of the few recipes that I have ever made that doesn't require seconds to make me feel full.