It seems pretty appropriate to be cooking pea soup on St. Patrick’s Day, after, it does have a shade of green named after it! My freezer’s supply of soup left over from ‘Seven Days of Soup’ has finally dwindled away, and my soup pot is calling…what soup do I get requests for the most? That’s right – that most humble, unappealing looking soup of all, pea soup. I bring it frozen to my daughter in college, my resident chef adores it, and what’s not to like? It’s hearty enough for a meal, and almost as comforting (maybe even more!) as a bowl of chicken soup. My basic recipe for this relies on a ham hock, but I included some ideas for a vegetarian option. If you have a few hours, throw this on your stove & let it simmer. It’s also a great soup to make with all of your leftover farmer’s market veggies when they’re getting a little old. You’ll have soup for days for almost no $$, and the house will smell great! Be careful & watch the pot – I’ve had a pot of pea soup boil over & it isn’t pretty!!!
p.s. – I estimate my entire pot of soup cost about $6 & makes about 8 servings.
Here’s what you need:
1 lb split peas (I use Goya)
1 or 2 ham hocks (mine were from Fred the Butcher this time, I also like to get from Oscar’s Smokehouse)
1 T chicken or vegetable soup base
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 leek, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
2 bay leaves
8 cups of water – or as much as you need to cover everything in the post by at least 2 inches.
to taste: salt, black pepper, thyme, smoked paprika (I like Penzey’s)
- Pick over & rinse the peas.
- Put everything in the pot & get up to a boil.
- Reduce heat & simmer for ~ 2 hours.
- Remove ham hocks from pot & let cool until you can handle.
- Meanwhile, use an immersion blender to smooth out soup. If you don’t have one, let soup cool a little & puree in blender (you may have to do in batches) & put back in pot. Adjust seasonings to your liking.
- Remove meat from ham hocks, chop into small pieces & add back to soup.
- Enjoy with a crusty bread!
Update: its now about 2 1/2 hours later, and my soup is still on the stove; my ham hocks didn’t yield all that much meat, so I a chopped up a kielbasa link I had in the freezer & threw it in, along with more seasonings. It’s going to stay on the stove another hour or so to let everything meld together. In my view, you can’t cook soup enough; it just gets better and better.
**For vegetarian soup, up the amount of carrots & celery, and add a mix of of potatoes, celeriac, parsnip or other root vegetables. I would also add more herbs to amp up the flavor – dill is nice, maybe fennel, even cayenne if you like some spice). Puree to desired consistency, or remove some of the veggies before you puree so you can have some chunks.
empirefoodandbrew 