Rick’s Split Pea Soup

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♼ Recipe origin is unknown. Rick’s split pea soup recipe, recipe Rating: 4.6
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A traditional creamy split pea soup recipe, with red bell pepper and plenty of ham!
Ready in: 1 hour 15 mins

Ingredients

Serves: 6

• 1 (1 pound) bag split peas
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 2 tablespoons olive oil or butter
• 1 large onion, diced
• 2 carrots, finely diced
• 2 stalks celery, finely diced
• 1/2 red bell pepper, finely chopped (be liberal with the red pepper because they’re sweet)
• 1/2 pound ham, finely chopped (I use low-fat turkey ham)
• 2 bay leaves
• 1/4 teaspoon thyme
• Dash cayenne pepper
• Fresh ground pepper, to taste (white pepper can be substituted)
• Salt, to taste (the ham has salt too so be careful and season to taste)
• 2 (14-½ ounce) cans favorite broth (or 4 boullion cubes and 4 cups of H2O)

Preparation method

Prep: 15 mins | Cook: 1 hour

1. Rinse your split peas and remove any unusual looking peas, the yellow ones are what you are looking for!
2. Cook your garlic in the butter or olive oil in a deep soup skillet slowly over medium-low heat, but be careful not to brown! Browned/burnt garlic is bad garlic!
3. Add the onions and cook for another few minutes.
4. Add the carrots, celery, red pepper and 1/4 of the the ham and continue to cook over medium heat, stirring frequently.
5. Once things soften up a little, add the bay leaves and remaining spices and stir them into the pot –it should start smelling good at this time!
6. After everything is mixed, add the broth and split peas.
7. Bring it all up to a boil and reduce the heat to a slow rolling boil. Cook for about 30-45 minutes while occasionally stirring, until peas are really soft.
8. Use a hand-held blender and blend contents until smooth. Finally, incorporate the remaining ham and maybe even a 1/2 cup of half & half!
9. Garnish with very thinly sliced red pepper and perhaps a little scoop of sour cream!
10. Enjoy!