Gran's traditional veggie soup

The senior bloke and I met with friends for a quiet drink yesterday afternoon that ended up being a big night out, pizza at the bar and even karaoke.  We didn't make it home til past midnight. Today has therefore been a bit slow and sluggish and being the middle of winter a traditional, warming soup was definitely the order of the day.  This soup is made with a bacon hock and loads of winter vegetables.  It reminds me of my mother in-laws veggie soup - hence the name.

Ingredients

A bacon hock

1 onion finely chopped

5 carrots grated

4 parsnips peeled and grated

1/2 swede peeled and grated

1/4 medium pumpkin peeled and grated

1/4 bunch celery chopped to a fine dice

1 cup pearl barley

1 litre vegetable stock (or 4 cups water and 4 teaspoons vegetable stock powder)

Salt

White pepper

Freshly ground black pepper to serve

Method

Place the bacon hock in a very large pot with 3 litres of water and bring to the boil.

Add all the vegetables and barley and simmer for an hour or two - you want the bacon hock to be tender and the pearl barley to be soft, so the longer the better.

Remove the bacon hock from the pot.  Cut off the meat and dice or shred.  Return bone and meat to the pot.

Add the vegetable stock - check liquid level and add extra water if the soup is too thick.  Season with salt and white pepper to taste.  Bring the soup back up to the boil and continue to simmer until you are ready to serve.

Spoon into bowls making sure that everyone gets some bacon.  Top with cracked pepper and serve  with warm bread or if you want to make sure it's really like being at Gran's toasted white bread with lots of butter.  Yummy!