Split Pea Soup

This is a one pot meal that really sticks to your ribs. Make it for a large family or if you have leftovers you can freeze it for another day.

Dice 3 stalks celery, 3 large carrots, and one large onion.

 Add 2tbs of oil in a soup pot and saute' the veggies.

Add 1tbs of dried thyme, dried parsley leaves and one bay leaf. Also add 2-3 cloves of garlic chopped finely and pepper to taste. Do not add salt.

There are coupling reasons not to add salt:
1. If you are using the ham bone it will give off a lot of salt while cooking.
2. Too much salt now will slow down the dried peas from cooking.

If you have a ham bone, this is a great time to use it. I had one left over from Christmas and I gingerly saved it in the freezer to make this soup. If you do not have a ham bone you can skip this step, but the flavor from the ham bone is terrific.  **I believe you can buy a ham hock from the grocery store if you want to try the flavor my ham bone gave.

Use one pound of dried peas. I rinsed the peas well with water and picked through them well --yes, you will find some stones :( so don't skip this step. It's worth it in the long run.

I added one box of chicken stock which equals 4 cups. I also added another 7 cups of water to the pot.

Simmer all the ingredients on medium high heat for about 30-45 minutes with a tight fitting lid. You will know when your soup is getting done because the peas will break down and the soup will get very thick and creamy.

In a separate pan, I saute' the diced ham with a teaspoon of oil and some black pepper.

The soup looks ready now so I will fish out the ham bone and the bay leaf. If you did not use a ham bone you can add salt here to taste.

I could not believe the amount of meat I found left on the bone. I am so happy I kept this bone for this soup. There is more than a pound of meat here.

I wanted my soup to be semi-creamy so I blended it with an immersion blender. You can also put some of the soup in a regular blender and cream it that way. If you want a more textured soup, you can skip this step.

Now I add the diced ham (didn't want the ham in the soup until after I blended it).  Also add the ham bone ham if you have it.

Soups on!  This soup really turned out better than I expected. I am blown away from how much flavor the ham bone gave me. I did not salt the soup at all. All the flavor came from the peas, veggies, thyme and that great ham bone. : )   I will definitely try this method again. Hope you guys try it.

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