Split Pea with Hand Soup

There is a scene in "Conan the Barbarian" where Conan is in the throne room of the castle. The guards are serving a green soup that has body parts in it like heads and hands. When I was in general surgery residency that movie got a lot of play in our lounge, called the swamp. Someone had a copy that had commentary by the director. During that scene the director said that they called the soup "Split Pea with Hand Soup."




I have a recipe for split pea with ham soup from Holland. It has sausage, bacon and all sorts of other tasty things in it. I recently had a bowl with a Cuban sandwich.


Erwtensoep
(Dutch Pea Soup)

2 pounds dried green split peas (soak overnight)
4 leeks chopped
4 stalks celery
1 pound onions
2 hamhocks (or ham)
1 pound smoked bacon
12 ounces Gelderland Sausage, sliced (or use Jimmy Dean regular sausage)
salt, pepper


Soak peas overnight. Place peas, water and hamhock in a pot and bring to a boil. Reduce to simmer for 1 hour. Remove hamhock, strip off the meat and return to the pan. Give the bone to a dog but only if it has been very good. Cook about 3 hours or until it has the right texture. Then add all of the other ingredients and cook until just softened (about ½ hour). Tastes very good if served with pumpernickle bread.