Desperately Seeking Soup

So for those of you who don't already know the story..... St. Stephens night (the night after Christmas) is the biggest going out night in Ireland. It's the time that you meet up with your friends in your hometown and go around the local pubs.
Last year I was in Ireland for Christmas and so when St. Stephens night rolled around I found myself heading out with Eleanor (my sister) and Orela (my best friend) for a night on the town. We had a wonderful night, but the next day I was suffering a little in the tummy. I didn't eat any breakfast and when the dinner bell rang I approached the dinner table with an anxious trepidation.
Mum placed a bowl of soup in front of me and my nervousness increased as the fragrance hit my nose. But, not wanting to be the naughty daughter, I took a spoonful of soup........ IT WAS THE BEST SOUP EVER!
Ever since then I have been trying to find a soup that I like as much. My butternut squash soup came pretty close, but was not enough.

So today, on it's anniversary, I tried to recreate this soup.

I started by sauteing some onions over a very low heat in butter. I then added some chopped carrots (1 cup) and 2 potatoes. After 10 minutes I added 2 bay leaves and the defatted stock from the turkey. When I say 'defatted' I mean I spooned off all the hard fat from the top. I know there is still fat in the actual stock.
I brought this up slowly to a simmer and then added some chopped ham, green lentils (pre soaked and rinsed) and dried thyme. The boys wanted to head out for a walk around the lake and so I let in cook super low for about 90 minutes before serving with some bread rolls.

The final product was a great soup..... but not on par with my Mums soup. I don't think it can be recreated. Matt suggested that maybe my lack of a hangover this year impaired my appreciation of this years soup. I do find that using actual stock from a roasted bird makes all the difference to a soup. I've been impressed with the concentrated tubs of stock (knorr) but they don't match the real thing.