Grandma’s Pea Soup

This is a recipe I got from my grandma and also made up on my own. I don’t typically like pea soup, but I only ever liked hers. She told me the trick is to use yellow peas instead of green. It’s a hearty soup for those cold winter nights!

Ingredients

  • Ham (I really didn’t measure this, so just a good amount of ham for a pot of soup)
  • 2 Tbsp butter or cooking oil
  • 1 medium onion finely diced
  • A bunch of cauliflower, roughly chopped
  • 1 3/4 cups dried yellow split peas rinsed well and sorted through
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1 tsp dried savory
  • 1 tsp dried thyme
  • 4 cups chicken broth or vegetable broth
  • 3 cups water
  • Salt and pepper, to taste

Directions

  • Slice ham into large chunks (will cut these down to bite-sized pieces later)
  • In a large pot, heat butter (or oil) over medium heat. Add onions, cauliflower, and ham and cook together until ham is cooked through and has nice colour on it (if you bought pre-cooked ham, just give it some colour and remove from the pot).
  • Stir in dried yellow split peas, bay leaf, savory, and thyme. Cook, stirring, for about 2 minutes.
  • Stir in chicken broth and water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the peas are very soft and soup is thickened – about 1.5-2 hours. You may need to add additional water if soup gets too thick.
  • Pick out and discard bay leaf. If your ham is still in the pot, remove it now and set aside for later. Using an immersion blender, quickly blend the peas and cauliflower together. I like mine with texture, so I don’t blend it smooth, just a rough/quick blend will do.
  • Cut the ham into small, bite-sized pieces and add it back into the pot (discard any fat chunks). Season with salt and pepper to taste.
  • I usually don’t add extra vegetables to mine, but if you prefer, you can add carrot and celery to it. I would cook them through on step 2 and remove them with the ham. Then add the ham and vegetables back in at the end. Or cook completely separately and add at the end (after blending).

Thanks to my grandma for the inspiration!

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