It’s not easy being green.
It’s also not easy taking pictures of green things, but here I am taking photos of a pea soup… again. This recipe was one of my first ever posts back in March 2013. How has it been almost four years that I’ve had this blog?! Crazy talk.
In the past I’ve re-posted recipes by highlighting them in my Best Ever series or if I came up with a way to improve the recipe. Today is a little different. I’m posting this recipe again because… well, because I want to. 🙂 In all seriousness, it’s because this soup is the one that we make the most… by far (and by “we” I mean my husband). I love seeing what other food bloggers make over and over again so I thought you might be curious to see the same from me. Plus (selfishly) this gives me the opportunity to photograph it again. Two cameras later and a lot more experience has taught me that green soup is still almost impossible to make look appetizing.
Trust me when I say that this soup is delicious. There is a reason we’ve made this soup a bunch of times. If you don’t like peas then I understand why you don’t want to make this recipe, but if you know someone that likes pea soup we may have something here.
The slow cooker works its magic turning the peas into a velvety magical soup. The ham and carrots add flavor and much needed texture to help reduce the baby food effect. With that said, if you want to skip the ham to make it vegetarian then you can totally do that and still have kick butt soup.
By the way, this is the one and only recipe that we use our slow cooker for. I’m totally serious. I’m just not a slow cooker kinda girl. My husband loves the process of piling things in it and going away for a few hours to come back for delicious soup.
It should also be noted that this recipe fits almost perfectly in our slow cooker when doubled. Our slow cooker is a 5 quart model, so be careful that you don’t try to double it if yours isn’t at least that big. If it fits and you really love pea soup then you get twice the soup for the same amount of time. If you end up with way more pea soup than you meant to, remember that it freezes well. Just divide it into convenient sized containers and stack them up in the freezer.
Slow Cooker Split Pea Soup Recipe
(about 8 servings)
Ingredients:
- 16 ounces dried split peas
- 2 cups cooked ham, diced (or 1 packaged ham steak)
- 1 cup carrots, diced
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 bay leaves
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- 5 cups boiling water
- 1 cup hot milk (Note: This is added at the end of the slow cooking time.)
- (optional toppings) shredded cheddar cheese, sour cream, and/or black pepper
Directions:
- In a slow cooker, layer the first 9 ingredients in the order listed above (that’s everything but the milk and toppings). Do not stir.
- Cover and cook on High for 4 and 1/2 hours.
- Add hot milk and stir.
- Remove the bay leaves before serving.
Source: All Recipes
