Brrr! Make This Hearty Zippy Sicilian Vegetable Soup to Keep Warm!

I shared my intent to cook big batches of freezable and warming food this weekend ahead of our Texas deep freeze, and am pleased to report on track with my goal. Yesterday’s accomplishment was marinara, which resulted in a lovely pasta dish, and today I made the hearty vegetable and bean soup with ham hocks that I’ve been making for years, finally documenting it so that I can share the recipe.

I’m really happy with the soup! I intended to use lentils, which are often in my hearty vegetable soups, but my package of dried lentils expired in 2023… whoops! My other go-to bean for this kind of soup is the sturdy and tasty cannellini bean, AKA the white kidney bean. I had a (non-expired) can of those on hand, so I was in business. Here’s the recipe.

Zippy Sicilian Vegetable Soup with Ham Hocks

Serves 8-10

Note: it starts with the right spices! Take a few minutes to make a batch of Zippy Sicilian (recipe below) before you start cooking this soup – it is a key ingredient. You could substitute another Italian spice mix, but it won’t have the right ratio of salt, black pepper or red pepper flakes, so you’d need to taste and add. Zippy Sicilian ROCKS and you’ll be glad to have it on hand for other recipes. One item you might not have on hand as a staple is dried minced garlic; that’s ok, just use one more fresh clove. But be sure and put dried minced garlic on your grocery list, because it is an awesome ingredient and one of the reasons Zippy Sicilian is so good.

Zippy Sicilian – An Amped-Up Italian Spice Mix

Ingredients

• 1 bell pepper, any color, chopped
• 1 large carrot or two small ones, peeled and sliced; if the carrots are large, cut the coin-shaped slices in half
• 1 large yellow onion, chopped
• ¼ head of red or white cabbage, sliced longways and then in 1-inch slices
• 1-2 ears of fresh corn kernels, cut from the cob, or a can of corn (not creamed)
• 3 green onions, white and green parts, sliced
• 1 potato, skin on, diced
• 1/4 cup olive oil

• 8 cups of vegetable, beef or chicken stock (or a mix)
• 2 cups smoked ham hocks, roughly chopped
• 1 14 oz. can of diced tomatoes, with their juice
• 2 tbsp. tomato paste
• 2 tbsp. Zippy Sicilian or your favorite Italian spice mix (you may need to add salt, pepper and/or red pepper flakes if you use another spice mix)

• Optional garnishes: grated parmesan or another hard cheese, chopped parsley, chives or green onions, sour cream

Cooking Instructions

Preheat the oven to 450℉. Put all of the chopped fresh vegetables into a large soup pot, add the olive oil, and stir. Pour the vegetables onto a sheet pan and roast them for 35 minutes on the top rack, removing once to stir them. Move to the middle rack if they are becoming too brown.

When the vegetables are close to being done, add the stock to your soup pot, along with the ham hocks, diced tomatoes, tomato paste and Zippy Sicilian (or other spice mix). Bring to a boil and add the roasted vegetables, then reduce to a simmer and cover partially. Simmer for at least an hour and up to two. Serve hot.

Join Me in the Kitchen

More About the Why Behind This Recipe

• The vegetables are intentionally chopped in different sizes to give the soup more visual interest; this isn’t a dish where uniformity is desirable. The variety of colors, shapes and sizes conveys the heartiness of the soup before you even take your first spoonful.
• This can easily be a vegetarian dish. Just leave out the smoked ham hocks and use vegetable stock. It’s still really, really good!
• You don’t have to follow the ingredient list religiously. Love peas? Add them! Substitute dried lentils for the cannellini beans, or just add them, too. Red kidney beans are also delicious in this soupl No canned tomatoes? No problem! Have an onion allergy? Leave them out. Celery is great in a soup like this, and you could use a sweet potato instead of a white potato, if you desire. This is a very flexible soup.
• The soup has more goodies than broth, so if you like a soupier soup, add a couple more cups of stock.
• Speaking of stock, what I really mean is ‘liquids that have flavor and not water unless you have NOTHING else. Here’s the stock combo I used when I made this batch of the soup I’ve been making from memory for years: 1½ cups of homemade stock from the last time The Grill-Meister smoked a turkey, 4 cups of vegetable ‘stock’ from vegetable bouillon cubes and 2½ cups of chicken ‘stock’ from chicken bouillon powder. I always have the bouillon on hand for times when I need some flavorful liquid but don’t have homemade stock. You can also supplement your liquids with wine, but be careful not to use anything sweet.
• Roasting the vegetables rather than sauteing them has two benefits: it’s easier and the bits of char add more flavor.
• Garnishes are nice – you can top the soup with sour cream for a smooth, creamy element, or shave / grate some parmesan or romano, and/or add the brightness of chopped parsley or green onions; you could even do a drizzle of a high-quality extra-virgin olive oil, like restaurants do… yum!!!

Leftover Bonus Track: Shakshuka-Like Lunch for One

This soup makes fabulous leftovers as-is, and we happily ate it for dinner more than once, including serving it alongside a panini on Sandwich Wednesday for a soup and sandwich approach. I also made a quick faux-shakshuka for one while working at home one day. Doesn’t that look delicious?

Here’s what I did:

• I heated up about a cup of the soup in the microwave, then added it to a small skillet on medium heat. Even though it’s a non-stick skillet, the size to make a single omelet, I sprayed the skillet with cooking spray first.
• I made a well in the middle of the skillet, cracked a single egg into a ramekin, then carefully slid it into the well.
• I covered the pan, lowered the heat to medium low, and checked about every 3 minutes to see if the yolk was done to my liking.
• When it was ready, I used a big spoon to position the egg with some soup into a shallow soup bowl, then spooned the rest of the soup around the egg.
• I garnished the faux-shakshuka with parsley and green onion (which were leftovers from the soup garnish), and topped with a little salt and pepper.
• I served it to myself with a piece of homemade focaccia that I had made, a variation of this excellent recipe from A Jeanne in the Kitchen.
• I was a happy virtual worker having lunch at home on a very, very cold day!

I’m sure you noticed that I said “shakshuka-like” and “faux-shakshuka”, Dear Readers. That’s because this traditional North African dish is usually made with a rich, spicy tomato-based sauce rathen than a lentil soup like mine. Here’s a nice recipe from another blog for a more traditional approach, which also has some great information about the dish.

Shakshuka – Classic Mediterranean Breakfast for Two

Happy eating!

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