Sorry folks it's a photo of a packet of split peas not the actual soup. As a family we have this soup every Winter, it is a hearty soup, simple to make, has a great flavour, is satisfying & warms you up wonderfully on a cold night. My children take it to school for their lunch during Winter.

My children access this website when they want to make biscuits or cupcakes so I thought I may as well include this soup recipe on the site. 

My family prefer this soup the day after it was made; it thickens considerably.

Ingredients

1 pkt McKenzie's green split peas (500 g)

1 Bertocchi smoked ham hock 

1 Onion

4-6 Carrots (4 big, 6 small)

1/4 Bunch of celery

1 Medium sweet potato

~1.5 Lt Hot water (or a bit more)

Our family of 4 can usually get three meals out of this (unless it has been taken for lunches).

 

Method

Use a slow cooker if you have one, if not use a large stock pot.

Dice the onion, cut the carrots into chunks, cut the celery into ~1 cm pieces & cut the sweet potato into thin pieces.

Put the cut vegies, split peas, ham hock & water into a slow cooker/pot. Pour in hot water to cover the ham hock. 

Turn on the slow cooker or put the stock pot on a medium-low heat, let it simmer for ~8 hours. I usually put it on first thing in the morning & leave it for the rest of the day. 

Remove hock from the soup & take off skin, excess fat & remove the bone. Dice the meat from the hock & put it back into the soup.

Let the soup simmer for a bit longer before turning off the heat. 

At this stage I let the soup cool down before putting it into containers to store in the fridge. The soup will appear watery but it will thicken considerably on standing. 

We rarely have this soup on the night it was made.