Spilt Pea Soup

Split Pea is probably my favorite soup. It's delicious, healthy and relatively simple to make. California Pizza Kitchen serves a Dakota Smashed Pea Soup w/ Barley and ever since the first time I had it (years ago) I have added barley to my split pea soup (as well almost every other soup I make). It adds a little extra "something" to the soup, giving it some additional texture and body. 

My split pea soup is very basic...

• Peas-I buy these in bulk at Whole Foods. I probably use about 1 1/2 to 2 cups or dried peas
• Barley-same as above! I throw in a good handful, maybe a 1/2 cup-3/4 cup
• Veggies-about 3-4 celery stocks and carrot sticks
• One Onion
• Ham-I found the perfect ham steak at Whole Foods and diced it into cubes. 
• Pepper and Thyme
• Broth-I like the Organic Veggie broth from TJs

I prep all of the ingredients the night before so that in the morning, I can just throw it all in my slow cooker before work. I am pretty generous with the thyme bc I really like it in this soup. I use one carton of broth and add about equal parts water. This soup cooks on low for 8 hours and then my slow cooker defaults to "keep warm". We enjoy it with some sourdough bread and a salad. 

*For many years, until recently, I would add a ham hock (or 2) to this soup and of course remove it before serving the soup. It really does give off a lot of flavor but I just don't care to put those in anymore and the soup tastes perfectly fine without it. But for a traditional split soup w/ that salty, ham flavor, you're better off adding a hock. You just can't replicate that flavor!