Sunday Cooking - Split Pea Soup

Split Pea Soup is super simple and it is a great comfort food! Especially, on a cold day. It saves well, it can be frozen and reheats well. Some soups do not heat well, especially ones that have pasta in them because they absorb the liquid. This soup does not. It stays thick and delicious.

What you'll need:

1 Cup of Yellow Split Peas

4 Cups of Chicken Broth (we used homemade, you can use from a box*)

2 Stalks of Celery (chopped)

2 Large Carrots (chopped)

1 Large white onion (optional)

1 pound of bacon **

* If you are using from a box, you may need to add more favours into the soup - Bovril or Bouillon helps

** You can add ham if you prefer or leave it out

Getting Started:

Since we made our own chicken broth, we started with this. We put the bones and skin of a rotisserie chicken in a soup pot, with the celery, onion and carrots and filled the pot with water. We brought it to a boil and then simmered for 1 hour. We drained the broth and threw away the bones and vegetables left over. (This is because we don't enjoy them in our soup.) This made about 4 cups of broth.

If you are using the boxed chicken broth and keeping the vegetables you can throw them all into the soup pot. (Most boxes of broth are around 4 cups.)

Most dried legumes like peas and lentils work on a 4 - 1 ratio (four cups of liquid to 1 cup of peas). Since we want these peas to be basically mush and bursting open you may need more liquid. (This will vary depending on the day and how dry a kitchen is.) Once the peas are soft and the soup is thick it is finished. This can take anywhere from one and a half to two and a half hours.

Once you are happy with your soup add any cooked meat you choose. (We chose bacon, ham is also something that goes well with pea soup.) We crisped it and crumbled it into the soup.