Pea Soup Kind of Weekend

YUP that’s what it was here at The Frog & PenguINN and pretty much a rain event all along the U.S. east coast. An April nor'easter dumped about 3 inches of soaking rains in these parts. Some states even got a bit of snow, but we only had the rain and wind gusts.

The good news – besides the fact that we really needed the rain is that it’s expected to lower the pollen count. That makes me and lots of other allergy-affected folks very glad.

Besides, it made staying indoors on the weekend a very comfortable place to be.

The heaviest rains came all day Sunday making it the perfect day to make a crock pot of split pea soup since we already had a ham bone in the freezer. I’ve made this soup many times on the stovetop, but this was the first time doing it in the slow cooker.  We enjoyed a bowlful with a loaf of bread that Grenville made. He wasn’t pleased with the way it came out, but it was wonderful with the pea soup.

This soup is so easy to prepare and you might already have everything that’s needed. No ham? No problem, just skip it and make this a vegetarian meal,  And, no bread is no problem either as crackers or croutons work great too.

Crockpot Split Pea Soup

• 16-oz. pkge dried green split peas, rinsed.soaked overnite
• Meaty ham bone OR 2 ham hocks OR 2 cups diced ham
• 1 C  sliced baby carrots
• 1 C  chopped yellow onion
• 2 ribs celery plus leaves, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 6 C low-sodium chicken broth

1. Layer ingredients in slow cooker in the order given, adding the broth last. Do not stir ingredients.
2. Cover and cook high 4 to 5 hours or low 8 to 10 hours until peas are soft and ham falls off the bone. If you have an immersion blender, you can puree the soup until smooth. (You could use a blender, but this would be a very messy process.)