Last weekend I wanted a warm, hearty soup to enjoy, but didn’t feel like spending all day in the kitchen. I found in my Betty Crocker Cookbook (New Edition) a healthy and rewarding recipe for split pea soup, with not a whole lot of time spent chopping and only a couple of hours cooking time.
The ingredients needed are:
- 1 ham bone, 2 lbs smoked pork hocks, or 2 lbs ham shanks
- 2 1/4 cups dried split peas
- 3 medium carrots cut into small round slices
- 1 cup chopped onion
- 1 cup finely chopped celery
- 8 cups water
- 1/4 tsp pepper
I had about a 1 1/2 lb ham bone from the half pig I recently purchased so I thawed it out, pre-chopped all the veggies, and was ready to go. I added all of the ingredients except the carrots to my largest pot (Betty Crocker recommends a covered 4 quart Dutch oven) and heated it to boiling (stirring now and then). After it began boiling, I reduced the heat and let it simmer for a little over an hour, still stirring once in a while.
Next, I removed the ham bone from the soup and cut all of the ham into small pieces and added them back to the soup (discarding the bone). I also added the carrots to the soup, heated it again until boiling and then reduced the heat once more. After another half hour of simmering, the soup was ready to eat. It was warm, hearty, and delicious- a definite winner for these cold winter months!
