We’ve had lots of lovely meals lately – Christmas Eve tamales and a huge Christmas ham. Since then, we’ve been eating pretty simple food. Yesterday, my girls and I had a lazy day at home and I made homemade split pea soup in the crock pot. I don’t use my crock pot much because it has a tendency to make sort of soggy food which I don’t really like – but it’s perfect for soup that needs to cook a while – especially when I’m too lazy to watch it!<\/p>\n

I pre-soak split peas because it helps to make them (all legumes, really) more digestible. Plus, it reduces cooking time! Soaking is a very simple process. Simply cover the legumes with filtered water by a few inches and add 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar or lemon juice. Leave them on the counter overnight and rinse a few times before using the next day. I try to prepare two batches of beans at once so I am prepared for a few meals. Try being the operative word.<\/p>\n

Split Pea Soup<\/span><\/div>\n

**As a former teacher of mine used to say – “Read All the directions before starting!”
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1 ham bone, optional (I got mine from my mother-in-law’s Christmas ham – and it still had meat on it)<\/span><\/div>\n

2 cups soaked split peas<\/span><\/div>\n

1 whole onion<\/span><\/div>\n

5 or 6 medium carrots<\/span><\/div>\n

3 o 4 stocks of celery<\/span><\/div>\n

2 bay leaves (optional)<\/span><\/div>\n

Sea Salt to taste (not till the end or your beans will be tough!<\/i>)<\/span><\/div>\n
4 cups filtered water*
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*If you don’t use a ham bone, you might want to use chicken stock instead of water. <\/span><\/div>\n
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1. Mince the onion, carrots and celery and throw them in the crock pot. Traditionally I would sweat the veggies in a pan with some butter or bacon fat first (YES, I said bacon fat!) but this is a LAZY recipe so I just threw it in the pot. Incidentally, these three ingredients are pretty much the basis for most great soups.<\/span><\/div>\n
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2. Add the ham bone and split peas<\/span><\/div>\n
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3. Cover the whole thing with filtered water by a few inches. I didn’t actually measure it but it should be at least twice as much as the amount of peas you add. So, 2 cups peas = minimum 4 cups water.<\/span><\/div>\n
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4. Turn the crock pot on high and cook for 5 or 6 hours. If you have more time, you can place it on low for longer. But, like I said, it was a lazy day so I didn’t start my recipe till about 2 pm.<\/span><\/div>\n
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5. AFTER the split peas are cooked (they’ll be soft and squishy), carefully scoop the veggies and peas out of the pot and puree it a bit at a time in the blender.<\/span><\/div>\n
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6. After all the flavors are thoroughly blended, add salt to taste – a little at a time. Don’t be stingy. Soup tastes bad a lot of times because it’s not salted enough. We only use Sea Salt at our house – not that iodized stuff, despite the fact that my father was one of the first Morton Salt sales people in AZ. “When it rains, it pours!”<\/span><\/div>\n
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7. <\/span>Be sure to take the rest of the meat off the ham bone!<\/span><\/div>\n
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Serve as is or with a little sour cream or plain yogurt on top.We also ate hot biscuits with our soup.
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As a testament to how lazy I was yesterday, I rinsed the adzuki beans I soaked the night before and threw them in the leftover water from the peas. The water was already flavored by the carrots, celery and onion. We’ll eat that tonight. Like I said, LAZY… <\/p>\n
The picture at the top of the page is what my girls and I enjoyed together because I wasn’t standing in the kitchen cooking!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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