There is truly nothing better than curling up with a piping hot bowl of soup on a chilly evening. Now that the nights are starting to cool off, and fall is just around the corner, I decided to make my favourite “fall” soup (albeit a bit earlier than usual this year!) to share with you all so that you, too, might enjoy this yummy comfort food. After all, like it or not, September is right around the corner … consider this a chance to plan ahead a bit since this is what I consider the “Grand Finale” to the Glazed Ham I posted a couple weeks ago!
The “twist” I give to this pea soup is to substitute standard “split peas” (which kind of mush up and disintegrate in a slow cooker) with chick peas. Both of my kids LOVE hummus so using chick peas is a natural way to convince them (or at least convince the 4yr old!) that this is, in fact, a “yummy soup”. So here, step-by-step is how to make a yummy, extremely hearty, French Canadian Pea Soup:
First: Make a Glazed Ham. Using the bone from this baby is truly the only way to go with this soup recipe!!
Once the ham is 85-90% eaten (If it’s taking your family too long to eat the entire ham, you can always freeze sliced discs of ham for later use in things like quiche, omelets, pizzas, etc. It’s always nice to have a little bit leftover for the weeks to come since presumably you won’t be making a ham each week) you are ready to make your soup!
The rest of this recipe is super fast and extremely easy! What I love most is that it can be very quickly prepared after the kids are in bed, turned on just before I go to bed, and ready for lunch the next day or can sit warm for the day and be saved for suppertime. Awesome!
French Canadian Pea Soup
2 3/4 C whole chick peas (dried)
1/2C any kind of lentils
4C water
4C (one box) Low Sodium Organic Campbell’s Chicken Broth
1 large onion, chopped
1/2C celery, chopped
1/4C carrot, grated
1/4C fresh parsley leaves, chopped finely
2 bay leaves
1 tsp dried savory (summer savory)
Leftover ham bone (with just enough ham left on it for soup, but not too much)
Throw all ingredients in a slow cooker, cook on high or low depending on how much time you have (the lower and longer, the better).
Prepare Chick Peas & Lentils by placing in a fine strainer and rinsing in cold water ahead of time. You may even decide to soak in cold water for a few hours or overnight, although this isn’t entirely necessary if you are leaving it all day in the slow cooker. Near the end of the cooking time, you can add more water if you feel it’s necessary and season along the way as desired with salt, pepper and your favourite complimentary herbs.
Remove ham and hambone. Discard any bone/gristle and give the ham chunks a rough chop and place back into soup.
Optional: Once soup is finished cooking, if you prefer a creamier texture, you can remove 1/3 of the chick peas and purree them and add them back into the soup.
Serve with fresh rolls or bisuits and salt & pepper to taste.
Yum! That looks so good! I like the idea of putting chick peas instead of split peas. I find the split peas have such a strong flavour that perhaps is just not as pleasant as chick peas. I used to make a split pea soup for my kids when they were really little that included spaghetti noodles and tons of veggies in it. It was sooo good. Thanks for sharing!
I agree Renee – definitely a milder flavour than split peas – and I just like something “substantial” in there – split peas sort of disappear like the lentils do after being slow cooked to death! Chick peas fall apart in your mouth, but still go in with some shape to them! Enjoy!
Heh Shaunna, I’d like to send you an email, what is your email address? R.
I’ll fire one off to you in a few mins Renee
I will try this. We like using dried white beans & soaking them overnight first. This will be a good change. Thanks.
I’d love to hear how it goes Kristin!! xo