In the warmer months I’ll chow down raw greens, juices, smoothies, and salads; bring it on! But right now, all I really want is a bowl of porridge. In fact, we ate porridge for dinner last night. It was glorious.
I reckon one of the best things about the cooler weather is that my slow cooker creeps on out of the cobwebs, and back into the limelight. They’re one of the best appliances in the world, and you can pick a decent one up for around $30. I just love throwing a whole heap of random ingredients in there in the morning and coming home to a killer meal. I’ve thrown some pretty strange concoctions in there, but somehow I’m consistently confronted with the most delectable stew.
Slow cookers do all the work for you; slowly intermingling flavours and breaking down the cheapest, toughest cuts of meat into buttery smoothness. This is one of my favourite things about the slow cooker: They make A LOT of food, and turn cheap ingredients into heaven. If you’re a povo uni student, have many mouths to feed, or simply want to save some cash; slow cooking allows you to eat well, eat a lot, and spend little.
Enter one of my favourite slow cooker recipes of all time; pea and ham soup. My mum used to make the best pea and ham soup. I never knew how she did it, but it was always a hit. And she made it thick. So it’s less of a soup, and more like a stew, minus any giant chunks. I gave mum a call this week and asked her for the recipe. I love that it was something that just rolled off the tongue out of her memory. These are always the best recipes. No stringent measurements, no particulars; just a handful of this, a handful of that. And you know what? Despite the relaxed nature of the ingredients list, the recipe tasted exactly of my childhood. Here’s what you’ll need to re-create this wintry wonder. Hopefully it makes sense. It’s coming from my mum!
Pea & Ham Soup
Ingredients
- Around 2 cups of dried split peas (soaked overnight). In mum’s words “Go for yellow split peas, or a mixture of yellow and green split peas, because the yellow split peas give it the thickness”.
- 1 giant, or two regular sized onions, chopped into little pieces
- 1 swede, chopped into little pieces
- 1 parsnip, chopped into little pieces
- 2 carrots, chopped into little pieces
- 2 celery stalks, chopped into little pieces
- A couple of bay leaves
- 6 or 7 bacon bones, some with a bit of meat on them. Go for free range (better yet, organic), and nitrate free where possible.
- Chicken stock (optional; but if you’re going to use it, go for homemade. Don’t even bother with the powdered stuff or the stuff off the supermarket shelf)
- Filtered water
Method
Throw everything but the stock or water into your slow cooker. Mix everything around. Cover your ingredients with a mixture of chicken stock and filtered water, or just filtered water if you don’t have any stock. Put the lid on, set on high. Leave in all day (no specific time required. I think 8 hours is a good time though).
Fish out the bones and bay leaves, and leave the tender, shredded bacon meat behind. Scrape the extra meat off the bones and put back into your soup. Get a big spoon in there and mix everything around, and breaking down any of the veggies or chunks.
You’re done! Enjoy! However, this recipe tastes a thousand times better the next day. Put it in the fridge and the next morning it’ll be incredibly thick. When heated it will break down a little. This will make a lot, and a small portion is super filling. Freeze any extra you have in single sized potions for easy weekday lunches or lazy dinners.
Are you a slow cooker fan? What are some of your favourite slow cooker meals?
