Split Pea Soup.

We made it through Christmas day, everyone had fun, the girls were ecstatic and we were happy and tired. We had quite a bit of leftover ham from last night's meal (as I knew we would) so I decided to make split pea soup. It is incredibly easy and I wanted to share the recipe. If you don't have leftover ham, you can use ham hocks which are amazingly flavorful and pretty easy to find. You can also use a thick slice of ham that is already cooked. You can find this in the meat section of the market.

Here is the easy, easy recipe for split pea soup.

2 tbs. olive oil
3 cubes frozen garlic
2 C. sliced leeks- split them in half lengthwise and submerge them in a bowl of cold water to get the sand out.
2 C. sliced carrot
2 C. sliced celery
2 C. cubed ham or 2 ham hocks
2 C. dried split peas
32 oz. chicken stock
1 tsp. old bay seasoning
1 tsp. greek or italian seasoning
1 tsp. ground black pepper

Heat a large soup pot over medium high heat. Add the garlic cubes and olive oil. When the oil begins to sizzle, stir the garlic and add the leeks. Saute for 3 minutes until the leeks begin to take on some color. Add in carrots, celery, ham and split peas, stir to combine and add in chicken stock and seasoning. Bring to a boil, cover and lower heat to medium low and cook for 45 minutes until peas have softened. You can cook it for much much longer, but be sure to keep the heat very low.

My younger daughter had a friend over to play today and they wanted to have a "soup" playdate, so I let the girls add in the vegetables and pinches of salt. We are heading downstairs now to eat the soup.

Yum!