It wasn’t very cold today, but I wanted to make soup anyway. Sundays seem like good days to make soup. I had a frozen ham bone in my freezer left over from our Thanksgiving Ham and I wanted to use it. Split pea soup it was. I had never eaten split pea soup, and I certainly didn’t know what was in it, besides, of course, split peas. Like most soups, it was simple to make. I didn’t know what to expect in terms of taste because in general, I don’t like peas. I found out that split peas don’t really taste like regular green peas. At least not when put in a soup with other flavorful things such as a hambone. I also had some frozen rolls in the freezer that I took out this afternoon to let them rise. Soup and rolls. That was our Superbowl Sunday dinner.
The soup turned out delicious. It was thicker than I expected, but I was okay with that. When browsing recipes for the soup, I noticed that very few recipes included potatoes. I ended up going with a recipe with potatoes, although I think that it would be just as fine without the potatoes. A lot of recipes also included cut up ham instead of a ham bone. I chose just to use the hambone. There were a few bits of ham that fell off of the ham bone, but most of the spoonfuls of soup were without ham. I also forgot to add the sherry at the end. I always forget stuff like that, or garnish at the very end. I took pictures but the soup looks very ugly. I didn’t want to gross anyone out or discourage anyone from trying the recipe based on the picture.
Split Pea Soup
Ingredients
2 1/2 cups chicken broth
2 1/2 cups water
3/4 lb split green peas
2 sprigs thyme
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1 tsp tarragon
1 bay leaf
1 ham bone
4 small red potatoes
1/2 yellow onion, chopped
1 small carrot, diced
1 small celery stalk, diced
1 leek (white and light green parts), chopped
Salt and pepper
1 tbsp Sherry
Preparation
Combine chicken stock, water and split peas in pot and bring to a boil. Once boiling, add the thyme, parsley, tarragon, bay leaf, ham bone and potatoes. Reduce to a simmer, cover, and continue simmering for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.
Saute the onion, carrot, celery and leak in some olive oil. After the soup has simmered for an hour, add the sauteed mixture to the soup. Simmer for another 45 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste and add the sherry just before serving.
