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.
Ingredients:
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.