Split Pea Soup

In between my last post and here we have had my shrimp pizza and turkey burgers.  I added Weber’s Gourmet burger seasoning to the turkey and thought the burgers were better than usual.  I have written my shrimp pizza recipe about a year ago.  It is the best pizza ever.  Jim really likes it.

We were at the store looking for easy soups that I would like for lunch.  Jim only likes Campbell’s chicken noodle soup.  Anyway, they did not have split pea soup.  So I bought some dried peas and a ham hock and made my own.   We ate it with Costco Volcano Shrimp.  The shrimp were just ok.  The following recipe is from the Joy of cooking.  We have three servings frozen for future lunches. 

Ingredients:

2 C dried split peas

10 C water

Ham bone or a smoked ham hock

½ C onion chopped

1 C chopped celery with leaves

½ C chopped carrots

1 garlic clove

1 bay leaf

1 t sugar

A dash of cayenne or a pot of red pepper ( I used my fresh red pepper, dried from Matt)

¼ t thyme

Directions:

I’ve made this soup a million times and do not necessarily follow their directions.  So the following is the way I make it.

1.       Place 10 C of water, the split peas and ham hock in a large pot.  Bring to a simmer, cover and cook on a low setting for 3 hours.

2.       Add the remaining ingredients and simmer covered for another hour. 

3.       Remove the ham hock and bones.  Shred the meat and throw away the fat and bones. 

4.       Use a submersion blender and blend the soup.  Add in the shredded meat.  Serve immediately or store in the freezer. 

Since I use a ham hock, I have never added salt and it is plenty salty for me.