Recipe: Tasty Golden Split Pea Soup

Golden Split Pea Soup. Here's a lovely golden soup that's very thick and satisfying. Green split peas can be substituted for the yellow, if you prefer, but may need a slightly longer cooking time. A dollop of plain yogurt or sour cream for a garnish provides a tangy contrast to the earthy soup.

This Golden Split Pea Soup recipe is so easy and quick. It only has eight ingredients and that includes water and a little oil for the pan! I always keep dried peas and beans on hand for easy soup recipes like this one. You can have Golden Split Pea Soup using 11 ingredients and 7 steps. Here is how you cook it.

Ingredients of Golden Split Pea Soup

1. It's 2 1/2 cups of split peas.
2. You need of Water to cover peas after rinsing.
3. Prepare 1/2 lb of Bacon (about 6 slices).
4. Prepare 4 of carrots sliced.
5. It's 1/2 of white onion diced.
6. Prepare 3 of large ribs celery sliced.
7. You need 1 of large ham shank or multiple smaller ones which I used here.
8. It's of Fresh ground black pepper.
9. It's 1 tsp of dried thyme.
10. It's 3 of garlic cloves sliced.
11. It's 2 cups of chicken broth.

A wonderful, simple soup, which can easily be made vegetarian by substituting vegetable broth for the chicken broth. I like to garnish with a dollop of creme fraiche and a sprinkle of chopped chives or parsley. Beer is an excellent accompaniment to this soup. Add split peas, chicken stock, thyme, bay leaves, and seared ham hock to the pot and bring to a boil.

Golden Split Pea Soup step by step

1. Chop and fry bacon until crispy, pour off most bacon fat.
2. Deglaze pan using chicken stock.
3. Add all chopped veggies herbs and pepper, cook until aromatic.
4. Add peas, water and chicken broth, stir..
5. Add ham shank and bring everything to a boil and skim off the foam.
6. Cover and cook on low at least 3-4 hours until meat falls off the bone removing bones and skin from shank out of soup and the peas are tender. Do not add additional salt during cooking, the bacon and ham shanks with the broth have plenty, just season with black pepper to taste..
7. You can adjust thickness of soup by adding water during the cooking process and adjust seasonings to taste, if you want to add more salt I would add it to your bowl instead of the pot, so it's not too salty..

This is the best split pea soup recipe! I've made it three times, and am making it again right now with the ham bone left over from Easter dinner. I don't soak the peas overnight (like my mom used to do), and it still turns out perfect every time. I also will substitute some of the water with chicken broth to give it a little more flavor. Split pea soup has been a favorite winter warm-up for thousands of years.