Split Pea Soup
Ingredients
- 5 pounds 1/2 smoked ham - shank end
- 2 pounds dried green split peas
- 1 large onion diced
- 16 cups water (approx)
- 5 cups sliced carrots
- 3 cups sliced celery
- 4 cups diced potatoes
- 1 tsp pepper
- salt to taste
Instructions
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Remove plastic wrap and (mesh covering from ham if it has it)
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In large soup stock pot, place ham, diced onion and water. Add 16 cups of water or enough water to cover the ham.
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Rinse split peas in strainer and add to stock pot
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Cover, bring to boil and slow boil for 2 hours. Stir frequently as the peas tend to stick to bottom of stock pot.
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Remove ham from stock. Place on large cutting board.
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Taste stock to see if it needs any salt. Many times the ham is salty enough to not need any additional salt.
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Add carrots, celery, potatoes to stock in pot. Cook on low until veggies are tender.
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While veggies are cooking cut ham from ham bone and dice into bite size pieces. Add this back to stock pot when it is cut. It can simmer with the veggies as they cook.
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Taste again to see if any additional salt or pepper is needed/desired. Serve with crackers or a great crusty bread.
Recipe Notes
*This soup will get crazy thick as it cools. To reheat leftovers, one can add a little water as needed to thin.
*You can also make this with a leftover ham bone after one would have baked it for a ham dinner. It will more than likely just have less ham to add to soup.
*My family is silly....most do not like a "ham dinner" so they always ask if we can skip that and go directly to split pea soup.
*I have used a crock pot during part of the making of this soup. I have cooked the ham, peas, onions, water, on stove in stock pot and then moved the soup to a crock pot to add the veggies and ham back in and let the veggies cook in crock pot to finish cooking this soup.
*This recipe can easily be halved for a more reasonable amount of soup.