Split Pea Soup

Pea soup recipes often call for a ham bone to flavour the soup. I didn't happen to have one, but I did have some cubes of ham in my freezer which turned out to be perfect in this soup. The colour of the soup might leave something to be desired. I've seen brighter green soups on the internet, but I'm just not sure how they get so grassy green.

Ingredients:

• 2-3 tbsp butter
• 1 large carrot, diced
• 1 medium yellow onion, diced
• about 1 & 1/2 cups of cooked ham, diced
• 2 cups of dried split green peas, rinsed
• 8 cups of water
• 1 teaspoon of Herbes de Provence ( I finished off the bottle, so no more Herbes for me). Thyme, a bay leaf, and parsley would also work well here, and in fact, I used a bay leaf
• salt and freshly ground pepper to taste. Note that ham is often salty, so additional salt may not be required. Taste first before adding more salt. 

Methods: 

Melt the butter in a large lidded soup pot. Sauté the diced onion and carrots in the butter until soft. Add the rest of the ingredients to the pot. Bring the soup to a boil on the stovetop, then simmer it for 60 -90 minutes until the peas are soft and the flavours have combined well.