Dried peas with salt pork

Yet another recipe from From the Hearth, this one for a thick version of split pea soup.

I was inspired to make this by leftovers and scraps. Specifically, the smoky skin cut off the ham used to make Ham paté! I want to remake with salt pork some time – will add to this post when I do.

Ingredients

2 cups dried peas, soaked overnight
1 ham butt or piece of salt pork (1 1/2-2 lbs) soaked overnight
2 carrots, diced
2 onions, diced

Bouquet garni:

2 tbsp dried parsley
1 tsp dried thyme
1 large bay leaf

Purée:
2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
3 tbsp green onion, chopped
salt and pepper
1/4 cup cream (optional)
2 egg yolks (optional)

Instructions

Drain the soaked peas. Place meat, peas, carrots, onions, and bouquet garni to a pot and add 8 cups of cold water. 

Bring to a boil and simmer, covered, for one hour. 

Remove lid and continue to simmer for 30 minutes or until peas are soft and only enough water remains to prevent peas from sticking to the bottom. Peas will be porridge-like. 

Remove bouquet garni. 

Put peas through strainer (I didn't do this). Add back to pot on medium heat. Add purée additions, stirring gently smooth, creamy and heated through. 

I didn’t end up adding the cream or egg yolks, but the dish was delicious all the same. I also didn’t put through a strainer – I tend to like things a bit chunky.

The trimmings from the ham paté were the inspiration for making this dish.

I used regular green split peas.

We ended up eating this the next day, and it was terrific reheated.

The Verdict

Delicious! It was a very flavourful dish, particularly for being made with water instead of stock. A great way to take advantage of the flavour of ham trimmings! There were some largish bits of the ham fat in the soup – very rich. I might trim a bit of that off prior to making this again the same way.