Split Pea Soup

I went outside my wheelhouse this week. Big Guy and I loved growing sugar snap peas this past summer, so we were intrigued by a recipe for split pea soup. What could go wrong? Split peas, onions, leeks, garlic, paprika, thyme, and chicken stock all seemed like safe ingredients to me.

To give it extra flavor, I started the soup by cooking up bacon which would eventually become the topping for the soup since I opted not to use ham hock as my protein. The cooking time was intense but added so much depth to the soup.

After pulling the bacon from the pot and setting it aside, I sautéed the vegetables in the bacon grease. They cooked very quickly, but once I added the stock, I had to bring the pot to a boil followed by forty-five minutes of simmering time. The recipe called for mashing the ingredients at this point followed by another hour of cooking time.

In the end, there was not too much soup left over for a future meal, but the taste was undeniably delicious. I look forward to adding this recipe to my future rotation of soups in the wintertime.