Split Pea Soup
Credit: Marika’s Kitchen
Ingredients
- 15 cups water
- 4 cups split green or yellow peas
- 1 smoked ham shank or smoked turkey thigh
- 1/2 lb. ham
- 1 small onion diced
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 3 cups carrots diced
- 3 cups celery diced
- 1/2 green pepper minced
- 1/2 red pepper minced
- 3 small red potatoes diced
- 3 tbsp Salt
- 2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/2 bunch Italian parsley stemmed and minced
Directions
- Fill stock pot with 15 cups water, add soaked, drained and rinsed split peas to pot and bring to a medium boil.
- Simmer/boil peas for approx. 20 minutes removing and discarding foam that rises to surface.
- Add ham hock portion and ham portion and continue simmering at a medium boil for another 15 to 20 minutes. (Continue skimming off and discarding foam that surfaces from ham and peas)
- Add diced onions, minced garlic, carrots, celery, minced red and green peppers, minced parsley, diced potatoes, 2 tbsp salt, 1/2 teaspoon crushed black pepper, stir and bring soup back to a simmer.
- Simmer, stirring occasionally for approx. 30 minutes.
- Remove ham/ham bones from pot being certain to remove any bone fragments that may have fallen off ham hock portions and set aside to cool. Once cooled, remove meat off of bone, dice and set aside.
- When split peas are soft, use blender wand to puree soup to preferred texture. I like to still have little bits of the vegetables visible rather than completely creamy but either way is fine. Another option is to not puree the soup at all. I like mine half pureed.
- Add diced smoked meat back into soup.
- Taste soup broth to make any adjustments. Might need more salt.
- Notes:
- Sort peas, making sure to remove bad peas or random foreign objects. Sometimes little stones or little twigs are found in beans and peas.
- A great option for smoked meats other than pork are smoked turkey thighs. Whole Foods has a really nice smoked turkey thigh. I usually find it in the self-serve fridge where the packaged bacon is sold.
