Dutch Split Pea Soup

Last night, I tried out a recipe reflecting Kevin's heritage for dutch split pea soup from Dutch Girl Cooking. It didn't really turn out looking like hers did in her blog, but it was still pretty good. I made it in the crockpot, rather than on the stovetop, so it'd probably be more similar to Dutch Girl Cooking's soup if I did it that way next time. Making it in the crockpot was a cinch - just throw everything in raw and cooked on low all day. It had very good flavor. I'm not a broth person and mine had quite a bit of broth, so I wasn't too crazy about that, but Kevin thought it was good like that. I've never cooked with split peas before and I was surprised they seemed to break down and I couldn't find them in the finished product. Anyway, definitely something I'll try again on the stovetop, I think.

Dutch Split Pea Soup

2 cups split peas
1 large carrot
2 leeks
2 onions
1/2 celeriac root
celery leaves
6 cups water
4oz bacon (I used some of my leftover ham instead of the bacon)
2 pork chops
5 pork ribs (I just used pork chops)
2 potatoes
pepper
salt
Optional: smoked sausage (I left this out)

Rinse your split peas and drain. Cut up your meat into bite size pieces. Chop your carrots, potatoes, onions, leeks, celeriac, and celery leaves.

(This is when I just dumped everything into the crockpot... but here are Dutch Girl Cooking's instructions) Now there are lots of different ways to cook a split pea soup. It also depends on how crunchy you want your vegetables to be. In my soup, I don’t want them crunchy at all—they have to blend in with the soup. I also go for easy and fast. Crock-pot style layering. First add two heaping cups of split peas and simply place the meat on top of that.

Now in with the celeriac root, carrots, onions, leeks, potato and sprinkle the celery leaves all over.

Pour in 6 cups of water and I’ve added a few beef bouillon cubes. You can also do this with plain salt, of course. Does this look pretty or what? You know it’s bound to be a flavor bomb!

Now pop the lid on, bring everything to a boil, lower the heat and leave it be. Simmer over low heat for about an hour to 75 minutes. I usually don’t even open the lid until an hour has passed by. Show some restraint and don’t stir. C’mon, you know you want to :)

After about 75 minutes, I took a peek. It smelled so good by then, gave everything a stir and put the lid back on and gave it another hour.

After two and a half hours had passed I performed my meat check. If I can easily pull the meat off the bones with a fork, I consider the soup done. It came off so easily, so I took the ribs out, plucked the meat and put it back in.

Now this is a pretty rich soup as is, but I’m a Dutch girl cooking, so we’re not there yet! Oh no, we’re not. I thinly sliced a smoked sausage and popped it right in with the rest of his meaty buddies. That’s the Dutch way.

Season with salt and pepper and sprinkle a little more chopped celery leaves on top.