I have used my crockpot every single day this week. Not as much as the Crockpot Lady (my hero!), but I am enjoying the benefits of a cooler kitchen nonetheless.
I followed this crockpot Split Pea Soup recipe earlier this week for the most part, in hopes of using the ham bone for some almost free flavoring. It worked out well, although the first day the soup seemed, well soupy. I am used to split pea being more chowdery I guess. It was tasty nonetheless! I even mixed some in with baby's veggies the next day, and she thought that was pretty good stuff.
The best part? It was super easy and low maintenance. I can see my using the crockpot a lot when expecting next time.
First things first, throw a bag of rinsed split peas (or 2 cups...mine were from a bulk bin) into the crock.
I followed this crockpot Split Pea Soup recipe earlier this week for the most part, in hopes of using the ham bone for some almost free flavoring. It worked out well, although the first day the soup seemed, well soupy. I am used to split pea being more chowdery I guess. It was tasty nonetheless! I even mixed some in with baby's veggies the next day, and she thought that was pretty good stuff.
The best part? It was super easy and low maintenance. I can see my using the crockpot a lot when expecting next time.
First things first, throw a bag of rinsed split peas (or 2 cups...mine were from a bulk bin) into the crock.
Next add the ham bone or chopped ham. You can omit this step to make it a vegan recipe, but I am guessing it would need some veggie stock or something.
Next start chopping! I chopped several large carrots into small pieces and 2 smallish baking potatoes (jackets on).
Chop up one small onion or 1/2 a huge onion like I did!
Add onions to the mess of it all. No stirring...seriously!
Add spices...1/2 tsp or so of parsley, pepper, garlic (or more!), 1 bay leaf, 1 tsp salt.
Add 1 1/2 quarts water (can you see how I measured that...I used my powerade bottle! Free from Wal-Mart last week;)
Cook on low for 6-9 hours, or high for 4-6, I just keep an eye on it every hour or so since our crock takes a long time to get going, but then is super hot super fast and finishes before its supposed to.
Make sure and remove bones, fat and bay leaf before serving!
We served it with whole wheat cornbread and salad. It was a filling, nutritous and very inexpensive meal. 2 Thumbs up!
I am estimating that a large bowl, 1 good sized chunk of cornbread and a medium sized serving of salad (just lettuce, a little tomato and some vinagrette) cost about $0.75/person. I got many of the ingredients on sale, but even w/o great sales this is a low cost, nutritous meal.
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3 comments:
Thankyou, I love recipes like this! I think you could do it vegan if you used "better than bouillion" or something like that (I think they have a veggie one). I especially like recipes like this in fall when we homeschool, because I can load it up in the morning, and then not have to do any lunch prep at noon! :)
I love soups, I like split pea soup but have not had it it in soooooo long. Will need to add it into my menu plan. Nice pictures.
I love using my crockpot, I'm going to try and use a bit more this winter. I wish I liked pea soup so I could try this recipe.
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