If your family is like mine, every holiday get-together involves some ham. And there are always leftovers sent home with various recipients.
And, if your like me, that ham sits in your refrigerator for a day or two waiting for a decision. You can have ham-on-bun for days on end (I've recently done that and it wasn't pleasant), throw it in the freezer and parcel it out, have it for dinner with a different side for several days or make soup!
I've been reading a slow cooker (or crock-pot) recipe book titled, "Make it Fast, Cook it Slow", by Stephanie O'Dea and used her recipe (pg. 208) for split pea crock-pot soup as a guide. The only change I made was to use leftover ham slices rather than the bacon or ham hock she suggests.
These are the ingredients I added to the crock-pot:
I started with a pound of organic split peas from our local health foods store for about $2.75 and soaked them with water overnight in the refrigerator -- though soaking isn't necessary if you plan to have them in the crock-pot for 8 hours. For soaking, I placed mine in a large bowl and covered with water about 2 inches deep.
I didn't have vegetable broth on hand, so I used 4 cups of organic chicken stock from Costco.
After six hours of low and slow cooking, I ladled the ingredients into the Vitamix Blender and blended on high for about 20-seconds before returning the smooth and creamy soup to the crock-pot.
I then added some additional ham chucks to the soup for texture and put the crock-pot on warm until we were ready to serve it!
A delicious and satisfying post-holiday soup for those cold winter days!
And, if your like me, that ham sits in your refrigerator for a day or two waiting for a decision. You can have ham-on-bun for days on end (I've recently done that and it wasn't pleasant), throw it in the freezer and parcel it out, have it for dinner with a different side for several days or make soup!
I've been reading a slow cooker (or crock-pot) recipe book titled, "Make it Fast, Cook it Slow", by Stephanie O'Dea and used her recipe (pg. 208) for split pea crock-pot soup as a guide. The only change I made was to use leftover ham slices rather than the bacon or ham hock she suggests.
These are the ingredients I added to the crock-pot:
Next, I threw it all in a 6-quart crock-pot along with an additional cup of water a tsp. of salt and a bit of fresh ground black pepper and cooked it on low for 6 hours (you may need two more hours if you didn't pre-soak your peas).
After six hours of low and slow cooking, I ladled the ingredients into the Vitamix Blender and blended on high for about 20-seconds before returning the smooth and creamy soup to the crock-pot.
I then added some additional ham chucks to the soup for texture and put the crock-pot on warm until we were ready to serve it!
A delicious and satisfying post-holiday soup for those cold winter days!
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