Dutch Split Pea Soup

I am a huge fan of split pea soup. The Dutch are particularly well known for split pea soup. I have the bone and some of the meat from an entire ham that we made on Christmas Eve. I decided to make use of part of the bone today. I got the following recipe from the book Let's Go Dutch. I had to modify it just a little based on available ingredients.

Dutch Split Pea Soup

2 1/2 cups dried green peas
3 quarts water
1 ham hock
2 bay leaves
salt to taste
3 leeks, chopped
2 stalks, chopped
1 onion, diced
1/2 pound sausage of some sort (Jimmy Dean works well)
1/2 bunch parsley, chopped
pepper to taste

Bring peas, ham hock, and bay leaves to a boil in water. Reduce heat to simmer, cover, and simmer for about 2 hours.

Remove hock from the soup and pick off bits of meat. Dump meat, cooked sausage, onions, celery, leeks and parsley back to the soup. Simmer, uncovered about 20 minutes or until vegies are nice and soft. Add more water if needed. Taste. Add salt and pepper as needed.

It really is a waste to have a ham and throw away the bone. You can make so many delicious things with a ham bone. You'll have to invest in a good heavy cleaver though. That bone is tough.

I tried to use my deer saw but it wasn't stout enough. That cleaver made quick work of separating the bone into smaller pieces for the freezer.