Pea & Ham Soup

A comfort food favourite

Method

Soak the split peas overnight in water to re-hydrate them. Strain and rinse well before cooking.

In a heavy-based pot, brown the onion off in a little olive oil. Add the rest of the ingredients, and enough water to just cover them.

Bring to the boil, and then leave to cook on a low simmer for a couple of hours with the lid on. At this time the vegetables will have become very soft, and the peas will have started to disintegrate.

Remove the speck and the bacon bones. Chop the speck up finely, removing any fat. You'll probably find a lot of good meat on the bacon bones as well; this should be lovely and soft and fall away from the bone. Discard the fat and the bones.

Using a BaMix, blend the soup mixture out to desired consistency. If you don't have a hand-held mixer you can use a food processor to blend it in batches. Add the meat back into the soup.

You will probably find that a lot of salt has come out of the bacon bones and speck. For this reason I'd highly recommend NOT adding any salt until you have tasted the finished soup. My soup was quite salty but had also gotten a little drier than I like it - adding a cup or two of water can improve the consistency and cut the saltiness.

This recipe will probably serve 6-8 people, but I plan on freezing portions for tasty meals later in the month.

• Bacon
• Ham
• Pea
• Pork
• Soup
• Speck