My Inner Granny: Lions and Tigers and Split Pea Soup! Oh My!

Okay, so I don't have any lions or tigers, but I did make some Split Pea Soup! I was thinking about this great place back home called Pea Soup Anderson's, located in Solvang, California, and since it's been so cold out, Split Pea Soup just sounded really really really REALLY good.... and I have to say, it turned out AMAZING. (Don't you hate it when peeps write in all caps to make a point? I know, I can be ANNOYING like that).

You will need:

4 nice sized carrots (diced up)

1 onion (diced up)

1 stick of butter

6 slabs of bacon

Salt and pepper (to taste)

4 cups of chicken stock

6 cups of water

1 bag of split peas.

You don't need to cut up your carrots and onions really small. Once it's all cooked up you will not really see much of the onion, and the carrots will be very soft. You may even want to cut the carrots bigger than I did in the picture below if you want to get a good bite later. I like mine smallish since I want to taste the carrot, but not have it be all about the carrot. I know, that doesn't make any sense, but it will in a bit.

In a large pot, melt half of your butter.

Add your bacon, and saute until golden brown. Do not over cook your bacon. You just want to fry it up enough to make it a little golden. It'll cook up the rest of the way as the soup simmers.

See that brown gunk at the bottom of the pan? That's the good stuff! Don't freak out when you see it. You will get a lot of flavor from that goldeny goodness, trust me!

At this point, add your veggies and stir them in with the bacon. Your gunk from the bottom of the pan will start to come up along with the moisture from the onion and carrots. That's a very good thing. You only want to cook the carrots and onion enough to marry all the butter, bacon and veggies together, and the onions get a little translucent.

Add a little Salt

A little pepper.

De-glaze your pot with a little bit of the chicken stock, stir it around to clean off the bottom of the pot, then add the rest of the stock.

Then add your 6 cups of water.

Clean your split peas in a colander to get rid of any unpleasant surprises.

Add the split peas to your liquid and veggies.

Add the other half of the butter stick and stir it around until it melts. You can also add a ham hock if your grocery has them, and just cook it with the soup to add more flavor. (My Super Walmart Center was not so super, so I just added the little packet of ham flavoring that came with the peas and used the bacon instead)

Let the soup cook on medium heat, stirring every 15 -30 minutes. After about an hour, bring the heat down and let it cook another couple of hours (or less depending on how fast it takes for the peas to soften).