Pea and Ham Soup

In my last newsletter, I mentioned my childhood memories of coming home after sport to the comforting smell of pea and ham soup. Pea and ham soup is my ultimate comfort food, perfect for cold days when I need something to warm up. After writing about it, I had a hankering to cook it. I asked my butcher https://farmfreshfoods.com.au for a ham hock, which he obligingly cut up so that it would fit in my pot. Do you have a good local butcher? I’ve been going to the same butcher for about ten years. Every Saturday morning, I ring up with my order. Josh cuts up a large marrow bone for the dog, and he has my order ready for me to pick up after sport.

When I arrived home to make the soup, the little people had eaten all the carrots. Most pea and ham soup recipes have onions, celery and carrot. I improvised with parsnips and leeks instead, and I was very happy with the result. As spilt peas and ham provide the overriding texture and flavour, I think you can get away with substituting different vegetables. Freeze your bits of stale bread to make croutons.

If you’re a fan of parsnips, you might like to make this soup: https://atamandastable.com.au/butternut-pumpki…-and-carrot-soup/

Best wishes,

Amanda

PS: If you’d like to read more, please subscribe to my monthly newsletter for stories, recipes and tips for simple, nutritious meals.

Print Recipe

Pea and Ham Soup

A thick, comforting winter soup served with croutons

Prep Time15 mins

Cook Time1 hr 30 mins

Total Time2 hrs

Servings: 6 people

Author: Amanda Lawson

Ingredients

• 1 leek, washed and chopped
• 2 sticks celery, washed and chopped
• 2 parsnips, washed and chopped
• 1 ham hock
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
• 2 bay leaves
• a few sprigs of thyme, tied together with string
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 3 L water
• sea salt and black pepper

Croutons

• 6 slices stale bread allow one slice per person
• olive oil
• sea salt and black pepper

Instructions

• Heat oil in the saucepan. Add the garlic, leeks, celery and parsnips. Cook for about 5 minutes.
• Add the split peas, ham hock, herbs, 3L water and 1 tsp salt. Bring to the boil, then turn down to asimmer, cover and cook for 1 1/2 hours.
• Allow the soup to cool, then remove the ham hock, and spirgs of thyme. Leave the bay leaves in the soup.
• Puree the soup with a hand held blender.
• Remove the skin from the ham hock and discard. Remove the meat from the bone and shred it wih your fingers, or chop it into small pieces.
• Add the ham pieces to the soup, and reheat (save few pieces to put on top). Season before serving. Add croutons, a few thyme leavs and ham pieces.

Croutons

• Preheat oven to 180°C (160°C fan-forced) and line a baking tray with paper.
• Tear the bread into small pieces. Toss in a little olive oil, salt and pepper, then put on the oven tray.
• Cook in the oven for about ten minutes until the croutons are golden brown

Notes

The soup will keep for up to 5 days in a sealed container in the fridge. It is suitable to freeze.

The croutons taste best made just before serving.