Split Pea Soup

I know not everyone is a fan, but I love split pea soup, especially when the weather gets cool. I usually buy it, or if I'm lucky I have it at Andersen's Pea Soup in Buellton, CA (though I haven't done that in years!). I saw a bag of split peas at the grocery store the other day and thought, "I should try and make it from scratch." So I looked at a lot of recipes in my books and online, and came up with a recipe that turned out great and totally satisfied my pea soup jones.

Ingredients:
1 bag of dry split peas (16oz)
1 box of chicken stock (32 oz)
1 cup water
1/2 yellow onion, chopped finely
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 tbsp butter
salt & pepper
1/4 tsp oregano
1/4 tsp thyme
1/4 tsp allspice
1 bay leaf
optional: ham hock, or ham flavoring packet. you could also crisp up some pancetta first, and then cook the onions and butter up in the leftover grease, adding the crispy pancetta back at the end.

Directions:
Wash and drain the peas and set aside. Sautee up your onions in butter until they are golden, then add the garlic and cook for 2-3 minutes. Add the spices and ham flavoring or ham hock. If you'd like to add carrots and celery to add more veggies, this would be a good time for that. I kept it simple. Add the chicken stock and water and heat to boiling, then add the peas and bay leaf. Keep it at a high simmer/almost boil for about 1 hour, stirring occasionally.

At the hour mark, your peas should be super soft and the broth is now a green color. Some people like it chunky, but I think the soup looks better and has better mouth feel after being blended, so I ladled it gingerly into my blender and pureed it. Side note: I wish I had one of those immersion blenders for this. If you like a creamy pea soup, you could add a 1/4 cup of heavy cream before blending it. If I had some, I would have added it, but it was very tasty without. Salt and pepper to taste.

I toasted up some prosciutto we had left over for a topping and served myself a piece of crusty bread. Such a good lunch for a chilly day. I bet it will be even better tomorrow after it has set up and all the flavors have married over night. This made enough for four small bowls of soup or two big bowls.