One of my favorite soups has always been Split Pea. It’s cold out, the holiday season and I’ve been home nursing a cough and making soups. I had some leftover Black Forest Bacon and decided to experiment with the traditional recipe for Split Pea.

Yellow Split Pea with Black Forest Bacon

• 2 pats of butter
• 3 slices of Black Forest Bacon, chopped into smaller pieces
• 1 Medium Onion, diced
• 2 tbsp. of chopped garlic
• 1 1/2 cups of diced carrots
• 2 cups of diced celery
• 1 1/2 cups of vegetable broth
• 1 package of yellow split peas
• 4-5 cups of water
• 2 bay leaves
• Italian Season, Salt Pepper, Cayenne to taste

Place bacon in a large pot, sautee with butter. Stir in onion, garlic, carrots, and celery; cook until the vegetables are soft, about 8 minutes. Pour in vegetable broth. Stir in split peas, bay leaves, water, cayenne and Italian seasoning. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low; cover, and simmer until peas are cooked, about 1 hour, stirring occasionally.

It makes quite a lot of soup and is filling. Despite the bacon and butter, it’s pretty low fat overall. I made a pot and had a few jars left over.

xoxo, Bekah