Soup! Yes, one of my most favorite things to cook is soup. To me, it's making something out of nothing. A chance to slowly build flavors and make a pot of water, a masterpiece! So upon thinking about this ham bone in my freezer, the winner was Pea Soup.
I remember it was a dish that my dad loved to eat. There was always a can of Andersen's Pea Soup in our pantry and it was always for dad. Pea soup was not one that was on my list of favorites when I was a kid but I slowly came to realize that I could make it exactly how I wanted it and then would indeed love it. So the flavor building began.
Pea soup, as so many other soups, really almost makes itself. Buy some split peas from the store. Get a ham bone, and any vegetables you want to include and it's a win. For me The items I used in making this soup are;
- 1 pound bag of split peas
- 1 medium onion
- 2 or 3 lg carrots
- Ham bone with ham meat
Ok, Let's get down to business. Take that frozen ham bone out and get it in a large soup pot. I filled the pot with water and got it cooking on high. I added half the onion to help flavor the water. Almost every soup I make included an onion to flavor. A pinch or two of salt and a couple dashes of garlic powder and let that ham cook and boil.
After about 30 mins of boiling, the ham came out of the water and the Water... Was Saved. You need this flavor for your soup. Many people simply put the ham bone in the same water as the peas and let it cook but I wanted to cut the ham off of it and cube it for the soup making yummy bite sized pieced of ham to enjoy in that green goodness.
Next I diced up half the onion and peeled and cubed the carrot and added a tablespoon of olive oil to a soup pot and then sauteed those vegetables until they were tender. At that point, measure out the amount of water needed for the split peas, the bag says 6 cups. So I took six cups of the saved ham water and added it along with the split peas that I had rinsed prior.
I cut cubes of ham off of the ham bone and added them to the mixture and it was time to let it bubble away on the stove. Now here's where you can flavor to your taste. This soup will not need a lot of salt because ham is very salty to begin with so be sure to TASTE TASTE TASTE and slowly add your flavors. A little salt, a tbsp of black pepper and a dash of flavors you may like, garlic powder, onion powder, even cayenne pepper can all be added if you want. I just went with a couple shakes of garlic and onion..
Alright, let that puppy cook. Cook it until all the beans have softened and broken up. I keep the ham water the whole time and add some from time to time when the soup is looking thick and I feel like it has more time to cook. Taste during the process so you can add seasonings if needed. Once the peas were all soft and broken up, the soup was done! It really cooked itself. There was little prep to this homemade delight and you just had to babysit and stir it from time to time.
My husband brought some to work to share with another marine and they were in pea soup heaven. It was delicious and took little effort. In fact the other Marine asked if we could go into business canning that Soup. To me, it was so easy and simple that took me by surprise. I make a lot of soups that are much more involved than this is so heck yes. Now we can all can it!
Next time you are having a ham for dinner, considering keeping that ham bone. It's great for several bean soups as well as this great peas soup that I made.
Always make it so good they're going back for seconds. :)
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