Split Pea Soup Recipe

 I know it is almost summer time and it's getting to be to hot for soups. For us I makes soups any time of the year to use up items in the refrig before they go bad. I am basing this recipe from the Betty Crocker's cookbook. What you see in the photo is the basic of this soup. I usely don't measure anything for a soup but do a lot of judging and tasting until I am happy. I will give you the measurements from the book and directions. You will need the following.
8 cups of water; 1 pound dried split peas; 2-pounds smoked ham; 1 medium onion, chopped; 1 teaspoon salt; 1/4 teaspoon pepper; 2 medium carrots, cut up; 2 medium celery stalks, cut up.
Heat water and peas to boiling in Dutch oven. Boil two minutes; remove from heat. Cover and let stand 1 hour.
Stir ham, onion, salt, pepper into peas. Heat to boiling; reduce heat. Cover and simmer until peas are tender, about 1 hour. Skim fat if necessary.
Remove ham, trim fat and bone from ham. Cut ham into 1/2 inch pieces. Stir ham, carrots, and celery into soup. Heat to boiling, reduce heat. Cover and simmer until vegetables are tender, about 45 minutes.
Now for how I actually did it. I had a ham bone left over from dinner so I boiled that in some water along with salt, pepper and some bay leaves. I had that simmering for about 3 hours. When I was happy about how the broth look I turned off the burner and removed the bone and let the bone cool. As the bone cooled down I added the package of dried peas and brought it to a boil. Once it came to a boil I lowered the flame and let it simmer.  After about 45 minutes I added the onions, celery, carrots and what ever ham I could remove from the bone. I also removed the bay leaves. I let this simmer until the peas were soft and mushy. I added some ham flavoring that came with the dried peas. I still had to add more salt because my ham didn't have much flavor.

This is what it looks like. Doesn't look very good but it taste greats. I hope you will give this recipe a try. Let me know what you think.
Until next time enjoy your day.