Pea and Ham Soup

Recipe video above. This is a fabulous "throw it the whole amount inside the sluggish cooker" soup. There's not at all want to cook the onion alone – it "sautés" itself inside the fat from the ham that rises to the surface. Thick, hearty bisque broth infused accompanied by amazing flavour from the ham! Use leaving ham bone, or purchase a ham hock.

Ingredients

• ▢ 500g / 1lb dried break peas (Note 1)
• ▢ 1.2-1.5kg / 2.4-3lb ham hock (aka ham bone), bacon hock or MEATY leaving ham bone (Note 2)
• ▢ 1/4 tsp salt (start accompanied by less, adjust later)
• ▢ 3/4 tsp black pepper
• ▢ 2 garlic cloves , minced
• ▢ 2 bay leaves , dehydrated or fresh
• ▢ 1 onion , finely chopped
• ▢ 1 carrot , peeled also finely chopped
• ▢ 2 celery sticks , finely chopped
• ▢ 8 cups (2 litres/qts) water

Garnishes / serving:

• ▢ Parsley , finely chopped
• ▢ Crusty provisions for dunking!

Instructions

• Place peas inside sluggish cooker, shove ham in. Scatter the whole amount ingredients around the ham bone, in those days let flow on top of water.
• Slow cook 8 to 10 hours on LOW or 6 hours on HIGH. (Or 2.5 hours on low on stove, 1 h – 1 hr 20 min force cooker/Instant Pot on HIGH)
• Remove ham bone, shred ham meat. Discard bone also fatty skin.
• Remove sound leaves. Use a branch blender to blitz 2 or 3 times – thickens bisque however doesn’t produce it completely smooth (my preference, you can blend completely provided you want).
• Return ham into sluggish cooker, stir. Taste also add additional seasoning provided needed (soup gets lots of seasoning from ham).
• Serve garnished accompanied by parsley. Serve accompanied by well-baked provisions for dunking – produce a fast Irish Soda Bread, Garlic Bread or upgrade to Cheesy Garlic Bread!

Recipe Notes:

1. Split peas are dehydrated peas which break inside half through drying process. Smaller extent means not at all soaking required. Doesn’t savour like peas! It’s quite a neutral flavour, a segment earthy, very much dominated by the savoury flavour imparted by the ham. 

Sold in packets should be clean ie picked through, also are fine to utilize without rinsing. But provided I bought them at the markets out of sacks, in those days I would rinse.

2. Ham bone – bacon also ham hocks can be purchased, on top of some deli counters or vac packed. They are great because they’re intended for this purpose so they’re super rich also full of smokey flavour.

If using LEFTOVER HAM BONE in those days produce certain there’s a average quantity of ham on it stationary because that’s key to the flavour inside this soup.

If you can’t turn up a hock at smallest 1kg/2lb OR provided you leftover ham bone is really naked, in those days buy a chunk of ham, chop it into ~5cm/2″ pieces also toss that inside accompanied by the bone (to communicate flavour into bisque also for shredding later).

If your bisque is lacking inside flavour due to the small extent of your ham bone also you don’t have extra ham, add inside a sprinkle of chicken shares powder (chicken bouillon) to do it a flavour boost (I do this when I open a ham bone specified to me by friends one turn up it’s completely naked also without of meat!!).

3. Storage – freezes 100% perfectly! I would freeze for 3 months to make a mistake on the side of caution, however I’m certain even longer is fine. Fridge for 4 to 5 days.

4. Nutrition per serving. This is for a hearty sized bowl that drive keep you full!