Today is December 31st. In just a few hours, we will ring in a new year as a family and I had an urge to start the year with a very basic, affordable, flavorful split pea soup and cornbread supper in homage to my childhood and all of the lovely things that came along with being a kid in the Walker household. We've got another little one coming along in a few months and though we are blessed enough to not have to pinch penny's for our mealtime budget, I will be sure that my kids know a good home cooked humble kind of meal because often times they just have more heart in them. Kids don't know filet and lobster...they know love in a bowl though. Phae got so excited when I told her I was making split pea soup for our new years eve supper. LIttle does she know or care for that matter that it costs about $10 to make a huge pot of it (and that's if you go organic on the ingredients) along with the Jiffy cornbread mix that I grew up on.
So here's to a beautiful new year with lots and lots of memories around the kitchen table with family. Sharing anything from a humble split pea soup and cornbread to filet mignon and fine wine. Home cooked is love. Always.
Smokey Split Pea Soup
1 tbsp Olive Oil
2 carrots (diced)
1 medium yellow onion (diced)
3 garlic cloves (minced)
3 celery stalks (diced)
2 bay leaves
1 lb dried split peas
1 ham hock
2 32 fl oz containers of low sodium chicken broth
Salt & Pepper to your taste
a dash of hot sauce to taste for garnish
This is a low and slow soup. Start cooking it in the morning and let it go low and slow all day long. The hubs earned some serious brownie points this year for Christmas by purchasing this beauty for me:
You can use any soup pot you have on hand with a tight fitting cover.
Start with a little oil in the bottom of your soup pot. Dice up all of your veggies and get them started over medium high heat with a good few pinches of salt and pepper until they are just getting tender. Add your ham hock and bay leaves at any time you wish to start cooking with your veggies. Once your vegetables are tender and you've got your ham hock in there with them, add your split peas to the mix and stir around to mix everything up. After about a minute, add your chicken stock. Bring the whole thing to a boil by bumping the heat up to high and covering. Once it's boiling, give it a stir and reduce the heat to a simmer. Cover and simmer on low for the afternoon stirring once or twice an hour. If you need to leave the house, no biggie. Transfer your soup into a crock pot and cook on low for the day so you don't have to babysit it.
For a classic creamy texture to your soup, after many hours of cook time, remove the ham hock and bay leaves from the pot and put aside. If you have an immersion blender, it works really well for this part. You want to blend your soup with the immersion blender for a few minutes until it's creamy OR you can let it cool slightly and then blend it in a regular blender in batches for a few seconds per batch.
The ham should easily separate from the bone and you'll want to dice it up before adding it back into the pot with the creamy soup. Bring it all back to a simmer as it's probably in need of reheating before serving.
Jiffy cornbread mix is a great friend to bring along to this party. A box of Jiffy will cost you about $1. I make my cornbread just like mom used to. In a cast iron skillet with a sprinkle of sugar on top and served with a generous pat of butter and some honey if the mood strikes you.
Serve the soup family style and don't forget to put a delicious hot sauce on the table to add a little kick to the soup. I love the Smoked Serrano hot sauce pictured below (it's made here in Colorado). Oh and, just an FYI, Mom would put raw onions on her soup along with the hot sauce. Just saying... :)
