Split Pea Soup with Smoked Ham Hock

This is the best soup to eat on a chilly fall day. It makes your house smell like smoked pork. Thanks to bone marrow and collagen packed meat in the hock that melts during a long cook time, it creates a very rich broth.

Ingredients:

1 cured and smoked ham hock

2 cups dry split peas

1 onion

2 carrots

1 large potato

2 teaspoons salt

water

First thing in the morning, put the hock and split peas in a 5 quart pot and fill up with water almost to the top.

Put it on the stove and bring it to a boil, then reduce the heat to low or medium low. Put the lid on it.

Check on it occasionally during the day that its water doesn't evaporate too much, and stir it. Flip the hock at least once for even cooking.

Dice the vegetables but don't add them yet.

Let the hock and peas simmer all day until an hour or two before meal time. Remove the hock from the pot and set it on a plate to cool. The meat should be falling off the bones.

Meanwhile, add the veggies to the pot, increasing the heat to bring it to a soft boil. Also add the salt now.

Be sure to stir it occasionally so that those peas, which are becoming soft, don't burn.

Once the hock has cooled, pull the meat off the bones and add it back to the pot.

As soon as the veggies are soft, serve and enjoy!

Split pea soup is autumn comfort food.

Any leftovers will have an even thicker broth than it did the night you cooked it as the peas continue to melt.

Click here to buy a smoked ham hock!