Zero Degrees Outside, Split Pea Soup, Anyone?

Unbelievable cold outside and just the right temps to start thinking about a thick, hot soup. Now, I have to fess up that my split pea soup doesn’t follow a recipe, does yours? I’m going to get it going in my new Rachael Ray 8-Quart Porcelain Enamel Oval Pasta Pot with Glass Lid because it’s big and will hold lots of soup. This is a great pot, holds a lot of stuff and is pretty! Yes, it’s for boiling pasta, but so far I haven’t used it for that. It’s also a great pot for browning stuff as it allows you to stir it up and move it around without ingredients flying all over the stovetop!

I used two bags of split green peas, two cans of chicken broth (Walmart had these on sale before Thanksgiving. I need more but shudder to think of what they cost now), several carrots cut up, half an onion chopped up, a bay leaf, salt and pepper, some leftover ham that I cut in little pieces and then I added more water to make a “big” pot of soup.



After it had been simmering for a couple of hours, I added some canned potatoes (didn’t have real potatoes or I would have used those) and a sprinkling of orzo. I don’t know why I used the orzo, probably because it was there in the cupboard and hadn’t been used for anything, that and my husband likes thick soups. You should see him jump up and down when I add water to anything to reheat it!!

The soup turned out great and hubby had two bowls in his “take to work” containers and we still had another larger bowl for dinner tonight. It’s still cold today, so what the heck, we can eat the same thing for two days in a row, can’t we?