Angela Hutchins
This soup recipe is an old family tradition. Every mama in my family has made this soup any time we had a ham. It’s delicious, comforting, and my kids love it, which is always a win!
Ingredients:
1 leftover ham bone with a good amount of meat left on it – meaty soup is better
1 ½ lbs. dried green split peas
1 medium onion, diced
5 celery stalks, diced
1 lb. carrots, diced or chunked (your preference)
2 bay leaves
1 or 2 sprigs fresh thyme (or ½ tsp. dried)
½ tsp. white pepper
Water to cover contents of pot
Preparation:
Place ham bone in bottom of slow cooker crock. Add remaining items. Cook on low heat 7 hours or on high 4 hours. Salt to taste after cooking. If consistence is too thick, add more liquid, stir and heat through. Remove and discard bone and bay leaves prior to serving.
TIDBIT: Peas, Please
To the rest of the world, “peas” generally refer to garden/English peas, snap peas, or snow/sugar peas. To a Southerner, however, the term more commonly refers to black-eyed peas. Also known as the field pea, cowpea, and Southern pea, these high-protein bean relatives come in a huge array of pod and seed colors, a variety of sizes, shapes, and flavors, and can grow on vines or bushes. Small varieties are sometimes called “lady” peas, and there are numerous popular kinds such as crowders, creams, blackeyes, pinkeyes, purple hull, and silver skin. They all can be cooked fresh, canned, or made into dips, or dried and stored. A traditional way to serve them up is with cornbread soaked in the rich “pot liqueur” broth in which the peas cooked.
