Rosemary and Bacon Split Pea Soup

I’ve found that this pea soup recipe will keep the whole family full and happy. It makes about six servings and has all of the hearty ingredients to fill their bellies and help them relax after a hard day’s work. Bacon and peas go together like a horse and carriage and rosemary adds that subtle but distinctive flavor. By the way, rosemary is a really healthy ingredient that is easy to grow. In fact, it’s usually growing wild just about everywhere, so if you can’t find any on your property, give your neighbors a holler. Get your best deep cast iron skillet on the fryer with your favorite cooking oil and get ready for some mouthwatering home-cooked goodness.

Rosemary and Bacon Pea SoupIngredients:

1. Six slices of bacon.

2. One small onion, chopped up.

3. One large carrot, chopped up.

4. One leek, sliced nice and thin.

5. Two large garlic cloves, chopped up.

6. Four cans of your favorite store-bought chicken broth or the equivalent of your homemade kind.

7. One and one-half cups of your homegrown, prize-winning peas.

8. A few dried bay leaves.

9. A handful of freshly picked rosemary.

Directions:

1. Fry your bacon in the deep skillet until its nice and crispy just the way you like it. I always find that the further apart you lay the pieces, the faster and better they will fry up.

2. Reducing the heat a little and keeping that delicious bacon in the skillet, add your onion, leek, carrot and garlic. Cook these ingredients until they get nice and soft. Remember that the smaller you chop these ingredients before you start, the faster they will cook.

3. Pour in your chicken broth. I find that the most flavorful chicken broth is the homemade variety, but store-bought will work just fine as well.

4. Stir in your homegrown, prize-winning peas, a few bay leaves and the fresh rosemary you swiped from down the road.

5. Bring your soup to a rolling boil for a couple of minutes to really bring out the flavors from the fresh herbs.

6. Reduce your heat to low and let that simmer for a good long while, until your peas are nice and soft. I usually let mine sit there for a complete hour while I clean up my kitchen and set the table.

If your family’s mouths aren’t watering when they smell this delicious soup cooking on the stove, then you should probably have their taste buds checked. For large families or really healthy eaters, you can easily double this recipe to keep everyone satisfied. And like all good soup recipes, if you find you have something extra growing in the garden you really want to add to it, use your best judgement and go right ahead.

Delicious Recipes: Pea and Ham Soup

When thinking of my favorite recipes, pea and ham soup immediately comes to mind. The delicious soup can be the perfect light lunch, or can make for a fantastic side dish of first course at dinnertime.

Peas are an exceptionally healthy addition to meal, adding protein and fiber to the meal.

Chef Keith Snow has created a video demonstration of how to properly prepare a pea and ham soup recipe from start to finish. He starts by cutting up a carrot and white onion, cutting them up and then sweating them out a bit in olive oil, adding a bit of salt and pepper.

He used some leftover ham from an Easter meal, adding the ham and the peas to the onion carrot mixture and then topping it off with some organic chicken broth. After adding the broth, he adds dried oregano into the mix, and then fills a tea bag with fresh thyme, adding that to the soup (he’ll remove it later on).

In the ham and pea soup recipe, Snow suggests bringing the soup to a boil, and then bringing it to a media heat and allowing it to cook for 40 minutes. After 40 minutes, the soup should be ready to enjoy!

Simple Pea and Lettuce Salad Recipe

This pea and lettuce salad recipe makes an excellent summer side dish for up to 4 people. Simple to prepare, creating the dish from start to finish can be done in less than 10 minutes.

To make the dish you’ll just need two pounds of fresh peas, four heads of baby bibb lettuce, and a little bit of butter and salt and pepper. A simple pea and lettuce salad recipe, this one is easy enough for beginners, but tastes like it was made by a pro.

1.To start, place two pounds of fresh, shelled peas in 3 cups of boiling salt water. Once you’ve added the peas, reduce the heat to medium, and allow them to cook for about five minutes, or until tender.

2. While your peas are cooking, remove the outer leaves of the lettuce to get to the tender middle ones. These are the leaves you’ll use for the salad. Pull out the center core of the head of lettuce so you have “cups” of lettuce made from the center portion of leaves.

3.Place the cups on plates.

4. Drain your cooked peas, and run a bit of cold water over them to ensure they don’t continue cooking.

5. Add butter, salt and pepper to taste.

6. Spoon the peas into your lettuce cups, and serve!

Delicious Green Pea Salad Recipe

We found a healthy green pea salad recipe from a gal named Betty that we thought was great. Begin by steaming your peas, always making sure you don’t overheat them so they stay a nice bright green. Add diced pickled beets, chunks of yellow squash and chunks of cucumber for the base of your salad. Then you want to cut some green onions and flat leaf Italian parsley with scissors to get nice minced slices. When you have all of your ingredients mixed together, you are ready to make Betty’s delicious pea salad dressing. Betty makes a dressing for her salad with a half-cup of white wine vinegar mixed with a quarter cup of sugar or artificial sweetener. After letting your salad sit for four hours to really enhance the flavor, you are ready to add the dressing. For thorough directions on making Betty’s salad, check out her video that we posted below for your convenience.

Do you like the recipes we’re posting here on Peashellers.com? If so make sure to let us know by posting a comment. We also would love to see any recipes of your own that you would be willing to share with everyone. See ya next post.