{"id":760,"date":"2012-02-02T18:01:17","date_gmt":"2012-02-02T18:01:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/homesteademporium.wordpress.com\/?p=760"},"modified":"2012-02-02T18:01:17","modified_gmt":"2012-02-02T18:01:17","slug":"homemade-split-pea-soup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/homesteademporium.com\/blog\/2012\/02\/02\/homemade-split-pea-soup\/","title":{"rendered":"Homemade Split Pea Soup"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>I found this old post in my drafts, it had never been posted before! I&#8217;m guessing I wrote it several years ago. Since we still eat a lot of soup in the cooler months, I thought it was still fitting for this time of the year.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2243\/2053763739_27e0480152.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Our main staple in our home during the winter, and spring and fall, is soup. Hearty soups. Full meal soups usually with as many food groups as possible.<\/p>\n<p>I usually make these soups in the crock pot, but I was unorganized this morning and didn&#8217;t begin cooking until noon, so today I made my soup on the stove top.<\/p>\n<p>First off, let me confess that I really did try to get a &#8216;pretty&#8217; photo of the finished soup, but there just wasn&#8217;t much hope with bad lighting (it was dark) combined with pea green&#8230; You&#8217;ll have to forgive me for the unappetizing appearance of the bowl of soup above. I promise you it tasted MUCH better then it looks.<\/p>\n<p>First,\u00a0the\u00a0water. I usually fill my pot or crock pot over half full. I don&#8217;t really measure this. We have 7 in our family, so I try to make enough for one full meal, seconds if they want it, and possibly enough for lunch the next day. If I&#8217;m sure everyone will want more, I&#8217;ll fill the pot 3\/4&#8217;s full, being sure to leave enough room for all the additions to the soup. I put the water on to boil and begin adding everything else. If I&#8217;m using a crock pot, I put it on high and add everything else the same way.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2348\/2054536680_47192b9f9c.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Then I add a soup &#8216;base&#8217;. I cheat this way. I really enjoy the taste of the soup base I use and I am sure to check my labels and only buy soup base that I can actually read. You&#8217;ll have to use what you feel good about. This is my little cheat and it&#8217;s the base of almost all my soups, whether I&#8217;m using chicken soup base or beef soup base. I have tried making my own stock, and it turned out pretty well but it&#8217;s hard for me to &#8216;boil&#8217; a whole chicken when we enjoy roasting it so much more. Maybe I&#8217;ll research making stock just from the left overs of roasting but I haven&#8217;t gotten around to it yet.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2091\/2054537030_cdfbdc487f.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>To start my soup, I simply add soup base to taste, but the package will usually give you a good guide line to follow depending on how much soup you&#8217;re wanting to make.<\/p>\n<p>I stir the water until the soup base disolves.<\/p>\n<p>Then I grab my bag of dried split peas.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2213\/2053753819_7c8d6fc9d1.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Because I knew I would be sharing the recipe, I actually measured out how much I put in this time. I don&#8217;t usually measure when making soups!<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2354\/2054537644_defcf4fee0.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>I poured in about 4 cups of the split peas.<\/p>\n<p>Then I added some cubed ham, about 1.5-2 cups. Every time we eat ham, I make sure I cook up extra, then I cube some of the left overs and put it in the freezer for future pea or bean soups.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2149\/2053754481_176da98c35.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Some chopped up some celery, especially the leafy parts are great.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2412\/2053754745_af6db237ec.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Chopped onion. About 1\/3 to 1\/2 a large onion.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2194\/2053755133_c3183b592d.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Threw them both in the pot.<\/p>\n<p>Then I added about a 1\/2 teaspoon of celery salt.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2164\/2053754921_d7532756ab.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Stirred everything up real good, and this is what it looked like so far.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2194\/2054538896_2a3c02fcc6.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>After that, I simply put the lid on and let it boil for a bit. I stir it once in a while to make sure nothing gets stuck to the bottom of the pot. Once I feel it&#8217;s boiled long enough, and everything is beginning to soften, I put it on low and let it simmer for the rest of the afternoon.<\/p>\n<p>Be sure to stir it occasionally, especially stirring up the bottom or it can become stuck, or burnt. This is why I love to make my soups in the crock pot because I can simply turn it on, and leave it for the whole day.<\/p>\n<p>Aleisa made up some bread in the bread maker to go along with the soup. We always have bread, or rolls, preferably fresh, with our soup, and always with butter. Sometimes the kids get creative and make the bread dough into braids or other such creations.<\/p>\n<p>One day, I hope to be grinding our own grains to make true fresh homemade bread. I&#8217;ve actually had a grain grinder for a few years now, and it&#8217;s been packed all this time. Dare I dream of a day I&#8217;ll even grow some grain?<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2413\/2054539420_e34d3b37aa.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><br \/>\n<em>*this post is older then I thought, she&#8217;s SO YOUNG!<\/em><\/p>\n<p>In the meantime, while I got the soup ready, Elsa made lunch.Today for lunch she made herself a grilled cheese sandwich.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>What are your favorite soups to make?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I found this old post in my drafts, it had never been posted before! Since we still eat a lot of soup in the cooler months, I thought it was still fitting for this time of the year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more-link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/homesteademporium.com\/blog\/2012\/02\/02\/homemade-split-pea-soup\/\">Read more<i class=\"fa fa-arrow-right\"><\/i><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[338,485,585],"class_list":["post-760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-recipes","tag-homemade-soup","tag-pea-soup","tag-soup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/homesteademporium.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/homesteademporium.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/homesteademporium.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/homesteademporium.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/homesteademporium.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=760"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/homesteademporium.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/760\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/homesteademporium.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/homesteademporium.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/homesteademporium.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}