Split pea soup

We save all our bones. Ham, chicken, turkey you name it. So if you don't save them , you might start now. Just keep the chicken and turkey together and the ham separate. We just put them in freezer bags and add to it when we can. After all the holidays we wind up with a couple bags and we'll make our own chicken broth and various soups with what we have.

So this is a recipe that you'll need 2 ham bones. Of course you realize that we make huge pots of soup
and freeze the leftovers. You can surely adjust this recipe if you want to make less soup.  This is a huge amount of soup, but we had the 2 ham bones. Pea soup is always better the 2nd day!

2 ham bones
12 cups water
8 cups chicken broth
7 cups split peas
4 cups peeled and sliced carrots
4 cups sliced celery
2 cups diced onion
2 bay leaves
8 cloves minced garlic
2 T thyme
salt to taste





Add all the ingredients to a large soup pot. Bring to a boil cover and simmer about 3 hours until all the peas are dissolved. Remove the lid for the last hour of cooking. You want to stir often to keep from burning. Taste as you go along and add salt as needed.
When the peas are dissolved remove the ham bones and cut off the remaining meat and add it to the pot.

Ladle into warm soup bowls and serve. Garnish with homemade croutons!

See our recipe for croutons under Bread!