French-Canadian Split-Pea Soup Recipe

There are many variations on how to make pea soup. French-Canadian pea soup is one of those. You can use either green or yellow peas for the following recipe. The traditional Quebec version calls for yellow peas. I just use what I have, as they both taste the same to me.

• Ham Bone with a bit of meat left on it
• 2 onions diced
• 3 cups of green or yellow or green split peas rinsed
• 10 cups of water
• 3 TBS. dehydrated chicken broth
• 2 shakes of fine sea salt
• Freshly ground pepper
• 4 –5 garlic cloves pressed

1. Place the ham bone in a soup pot and add ten cups of water and bring to a boil.
2. Set burner to medium heat and let the bone cook for about ½ hour.
3. Remove the bone and cut the meat off. Chop the meat into bite sized pieces.
4. Add onions, split peas, ham bone,and chopped ham into the water.
5. Add salt, pepper chicken broth, and stir. Bring to a boil, then turning the heat down to medium cook for 60 - 90 minutes stirring occasionally.
6. The last fifteen minutes of cooking remove the bone, add the pressed garlic cloves and stir.
7. Serve with thick slices of French bread and a salad or eat all on its own. ENJOY!

• I prefer to use the boxed chicken broth, but today I was out of it so I used the dehydrated. If you do use the boxed or canned broth just decrease the amount of water that you use.
• This soup freezes really well and many times I will double the amount I make so that I have soup on hand for boxed lunches. Ziploc bags work great for this and you can pre-measure how much soup you want to reheat for a lunch or to put into a thermos.
• Sometimes I will add chopped carrots to the soup while it is cooking.