Split Pea & Ham Soup

For Christmas dinner we had ordered a Honey Baked Ham and had it shipped to us.  Never again will we stand in a line that wraps around the building of the Honey Baked Ham Store!!

We enjoyed two dinners and a couple of sandwiches.  And with what was left I made a pot of split pea soup.

A bag of split peas, an onion, a few celery stalks, carrots if you want, however I didn't add them this time, and enough water to cover.  Oh, and your ham bone of course.
I like to give the celery and onion a little saute first in some olive oil.

Add your ham and rinsed peas.

Pour enough water into the pot to cover peas, and most of ham.   About 6 cups or so.

I put only cracked pepper in to season at this point.  Ham is so salty, you don't want to add salt that you don't need.  Wait until it is nearly done to taste, and then determine how much salt you need.  You can add a couple bay leaves if you want.  Usually I do.
Bring to a boil, give a good stir, and reduce heat to low, and put lid on and let simmer for several hours.  5 - 6 hours later, the ham will have fallen off of the bones.  Remove the bones and discard any pieces of fat. 

I like to use my immersion blender at this point to smooth out the soup.  However, if you do this, you may want to remove the ham, as it can become stringy when using this blender.  I, however, like to live dangerously, and did not remove the ham. Instead I later used a toothpick to remove the stringy ham from the blades of my blender.  No matter, the soup was divine!

Serve with a little dollop of sour cream and more cracked pepper.  Usually we have cornbread with this.  But instead we had sour dough toast.  Delicious!
Bon Appetit!