Let’s be honest, posting appetizing photos of split pea soup is the Great Barrier Reef of food blogging. The big question is “how am I going to navigate my way through a photo shoot and make this soup look awesome enough for people to want eat and not make them want to hurl?”
Green is a great color for salads or for adding a finishing touch to many dishes. A judicious use of green in such dishes such as Pozole Rojo; Red Pepper Pesto Over Angel Hair Pasta; Lentil, Quinoa, and Orzo Salad; Creamy Mushroom Chicken with Linguini; or Cheese Enchiladas makes the photographic presentation rock. But, somehow the green of Split Pea Soup doesn’t work very well. Split pea green looks beautiful as an accent color in decorating, like with a throw pillow or even as a paint color. However, you don’t generally hear someone say, “Wow! That reminds me of split pea soup! I’m gonna make some for dinner tonight!”. Nope. It just doesn’t happen.
Love, though, can give a food blogger boundless courage in certain posts. As I mentioned in my post on 1/2 & 1/2 Whole Wheat French Bread, my husband, John, has been feeling nostalgic lately about the five years he spent in Sweden. His family had a cook who used to make split pea soup from time to time and John loved it. While it is intimidating to come up with a recipe to compete with someone’s memory of a favored food, I took this particular as a welcome challenge. Pea soup was one of my childhood favorites…the stuff from the can, dearies. My mom was a big fan of Campbell’s and when my dad was out of town, we ate a lot of canned soup.
The great thing about split peas is that unlike many members of the legume family, peas do not require pre-soaking. Simply toss them in a pot with sufficient water or broth, toss in a few other standard kitchen ingredients, bring everything to a low boil and dinner is ready in under an hour. Life is good!
This soup was wonderfully delicious. John and I kept returning to the soup pot to refill our bowls. Ham hocks brought a favorite smoky flavor, while the peas, vegetable broth and carrots brought unexpected sweetness. The onions and garlic along with the sage and bay leaves added lots of depth. The soup, together with the crusty Whole Wheat French Bread was a great late winter meal.
You want to know what is great about late Winter? It means that early Spring is just around the corner. 
Recipe by Terri @ that's some good cookin
Ingredients
- 1 pound dry green split peas
- 8 cups vegetable stock ( May need more depending on desired thickness. Water can also be used, but soup will not have the same depth of flavor as it does with vegetable stock. )
- 2-4 ham hocks, depending on size
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 1 medium potato, diced
- 2 large carrots, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 teaspoon sage
- 2 bay leaves
- salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Rinse peas under cool running water. Check for and remove any debris...if it ain't a pea, you may not want to eat it.
- Add the peas, vegetable stock, and ham hocks to a large stock pot. Bring to a low boil over medium heat. Cook, stirring occasionally for 20 minutes.
- Lower the heat, and add the remaining ingredients. Continue to cook for another 25-40 minutes, stirring often, until the vegetables are tender and the peas have thickened the soup. As the soup begins to thicken, it will have a tendency to stick to the bottom of the pot, so be sure that the heat is low and stir often. Add a little water or stock to thin the soup, if necessary.
- Before serving, remove the ham hocks from the soup and allow to cool. Remove meat from bones and chop into small pieces. Stir into soup.
- Garnish as desired for serving.
