My Boyfriend Can Cook!: Split Pea Soup

Last weekend Chuck decided on split pea soup and began looking at every recipe he could find. He did some real research about what he was going to put into this masterpiece. I sat at the counter as he assembled and prepared the ingredients on Sunday afternoon. Kind of surprised by some of the items. A red bell pepper? I know better than to say anything, I know it will be good. I liked everything I saw, I had just imagined split pea soup as split peas, ham, and that was about it.

With all of the recipes he looked at, I was also surprised not to see any heavy cream ready to be added to the pot. Definitely wasn't going to say anything about that! Chuck did bring that up later, but said he chose to add additional split peas to thicken it rather than cream.

This soup smelled awesome, even just as the ingredients were added. The smell just kept getting better and better as time went on and we enjoyed it with some fantastic beer bread I had made a couple of nights before. Here's the recipe for it: http://www.gimmesomeoven.com/whole-wheat-garlic-and-herb-beer-bread/ I used a porter beer, and a lot of butter but not quite as much as it called for.

We really enjoyed this soup. Chuck was hungry a few hours later and said he knows better than to just have soup for dinner and should have added a sandwich. I was good to go.

Split Pea and Ham soup

Ingredients

     1 lb             Dry split peas
     2                 Leeks, most of the whites, some of the greens, thinly sliced
     2                 Carrots, chopped
     2                 Garlic cloves, minced
     1                 Celery stalk, large, chopped
     1                 Yellow onion, chopped
     1/2              Red Bell Pepper
     1 t               Italian Seasoning
     1 pinch       Red pepper flakes
                  Olive oil
                        Kosher salt
      Fresh ground pepper
   12 oz. Smoked pork neck bones (anything smoked with bones will work)
   5 c. Chicken stock, low sodium
   1 c. Water
   12 oz. Hormel ham, diced

Tip from Chuck: It's easy to make this soup very salty. Be sure to get low sodium chicken stock so you can control the amount of salt. Throughout this whole process he only added one pinch of salt. You are getting plenty from the smoked neck bones and the ham.

Directions
1: Soak split peas for at least 1/2 an hour, covered completely in water. Then drain
the water out.

     2:    Prep all veggies while warming a drizzle of olive oil in a dutch oven to low heat.
                       Tip from Chuck: Veggies don't need to be cut uniformly because they will be
                       blended together at the end.

   3: Add the celery, carrot, bell pepper, and onion to the dutch oven. Add another drizzle
                       of olive oil and a pinch of salt and pepper.

   4: Once those have cooked for a couple of minutes, add the Italian seasoning and red
                       pepper flakes. Let cook for a few minutes, increase the heat to medium and
                       add the leeks. Let cook until the veggies soften up (about 10 minutes).
   5:    Add the neck bones, and stir them into the veggies. Let them cook for a few
                       minutes before adding the garlic and let cook for 1 more minute.