One of my favorite go-to soups in the winter is Split Pea. I know the mossy hue can be scary, but we should all seek the color green in our diet. Split Pea is easy, filling, healthy (lots of fiber – consider yourself warned!), can be vegetarian if you prefer, freezes well, and is inexpensive. I always make a double batch, so that is the recipe I will give here. After three hours of simmering you will have 16 servings of awesome!
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| My dried peas and ham shank! |
Ingredients:
2 pounds dried split peas
16 cups water
Ham of some sort unless you want vegetarian soup. Pictured above is a ham shank or you can use about 2 lb of bone-in smoked ham, or you can just add diced pieces of ham at the last stage of cooking.
1 onion, chopped (about 1cup)
4 stalks celery, chopped
2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
2 bay leaves
4 carrots, chopped
Heat water and peas to boiling. Cover and turn off heat. Let stand for one hour.
Add ham if using a bone-in variety, onion, celery, salt, pepper and bay leaves. Heat to boiling, cover and simmer for one hour. Skim fat if needed.
Remove bone and fat from ham. Cut into dice-sized pieces and return to pot. (If you are simply adding chopped ham, do it now.) Add carrots. Simmer for 45 minutes to an hour, until carrots are soft, making sure to stir every 10-15 minutes. (The solids sink to the bottom of pan and will scorch if left alone too long.)
Remove bay leaves, adjust salt and pepper. Enjoy!
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