Pea Soup with Ham

I went on a little trip at the beginning of the month to Vancouver Island, and while I was there I was given a big bowl of pea soup. Now, unless my memory fails me, before then I had never tried pea soup. What a mistake that was! I know, I know, I keep telling you I'm not a "soup" person, and here I am telling you, "Eat this soup." Trust me, there is a reason for my inconsistencies. It's called deliciousness.

Anywho, I gobbled the bowl of soup and I couldn't stop thinking about the pea soup all day. The recipe is courtesy of my bf's mom--her food is always delicious, and she was kind enough to share her recipe. I made half a batch which is going to be enough for at least a week's worth of lunches/dinners for meeeee. And no one else.

The only differences in our recipes is that I used plain old ham, whereas she was able to find a ham bone and strip the meat off of it for the soup and cook it with the bone for flavor. I also threw everything in the slow cooker for about 5 hours before hitting the stove since I wasn't around long enough to keep an eye on the pot. In the end it was a similar outcome, but hers was better (probably because it was made with motherly love and a ham bone.. that's just my opinion). So, because my recipe was a little on the weird side, I'm giving you her recipe, just how she emailed it to me:

Pea Soup with Ham (created by a mommy, tested by GG)

I put about 3 cups of peas in water - to just cover them - boil that quickly and then put aside for about an hour to soften the peas.

then add to the peas:  

- the ham bone (if you have one - if you have a ham with a bone then cut off as much of the ham as possible and reserve it to put in almost at the end

- a finely diced onion, 

- thyme, 

- garlic powder (or garlic), 

- a bit of salt and pepper 

-  8 cups of water 

and bring all of the above to a boil, then turn down to simmer for about 90 mins to 2 hours - stirring occasionally and may have to add more water.

then when peas really mushy almost dissolved add 1 cup shredded carrots and 1 cup diced celery and cook another 30 mins or so until all really mushed together 

add ham and cook a bit more (at any time you may need to add a bit more water)

taste add seasoning to taste more thyme, salt and pepper etc.  

and voila!

It doesn't get much better than this! Of course, if you want you can do all of this in a slow cooker for about 10 hours, but the stove-top method brings more flavor.

Thank the universe for shared recipes! Enjoy!