Since everyone is cooking ham for the Let's Ham It Up! throwdown (hint hint), I thought I would post how we used the bone from our Thanksgiving ham.
Split Pea Soup with Ham
This soup has been a holiday tradition in my family for years and years. We usually have ham at either Thanksgiving or Christmas and the ham bone is used to make split pea soup. Now that my mother is getting older (87) she's passed the recipe on to me. I mad it on this past Friday morning so I could take some to my parents when we visited them this past weekend.
The soup starts with 2 lbs of dried split peas that are rinsed in clean water and then set aside. Then I chopped carrots, onions and celery to get about 2 cups of each. I sautéed these in my soup pot, seasoned with salt and pepper, until the onions were transparent and the carrots and celery were starting to soften.
After that I added some chopped garlic and gave that a quick sauté and then put in some dried thyme, 8 cups of chicken stock and the ham bone from Thanksgiving.
Then the rinsed peas went in along with salt and pepper to taste...
Then I added water to cover everything and let it come to a boil and then simmer for two hours...
After two hours I adjusted the seasoning and took out about half of the soup and pureed it with my immersion blender to give the soup a smooth texture...
After that I cooled it and let it sit in the fridge for a couple of days to let the flavors blend. We ate it for dinner last night with some croutons on top for added crunch...
The soup was creamy and delicious and the chunks of ham and croutons were a nice contrast in texture. If you've never tried split pea soup, give it a shot. Not all green food is "non-meat, icky stuff" :thumb: :becky:
Split Pea Soup with Ham
This soup has been a holiday tradition in my family for years and years. We usually have ham at either Thanksgiving or Christmas and the ham bone is used to make split pea soup. Now that my mother is getting older (87) she's passed the recipe on to me. I mad it on this past Friday morning so I could take some to my parents when we visited them this past weekend.
The soup starts with 2 lbs of dried split peas that are rinsed in clean water and then set aside. Then I chopped carrots, onions and celery to get about 2 cups of each. I sautéed these in my soup pot, seasoned with salt and pepper, until the onions were transparent and the carrots and celery were starting to soften.
After that I added some chopped garlic and gave that a quick sauté and then put in some dried thyme, 8 cups of chicken stock and the ham bone from Thanksgiving.
Then the rinsed peas went in along with salt and pepper to taste...
Then I added water to cover everything and let it come to a boil and then simmer for two hours...
After two hours I adjusted the seasoning and took out about half of the soup and pureed it with my immersion blender to give the soup a smooth texture...
After that I cooled it and let it sit in the fridge for a couple of days to let the flavors blend. We ate it for dinner last night with some croutons on top for added crunch...
The soup was creamy and delicious and the chunks of ham and croutons were a nice contrast in texture. If you've never tried split pea soup, give it a shot. Not all green food is "non-meat, icky stuff" :thumb: :becky: