Split Pea Soup

I never thought much of split pea soup until my mom sent me this recipe.  For similar meat-infused soups, I only ever found a grizzled, dried, overly salty ham hock, which never lent the rich, meaty vibe the recipe promised.   This recipe avoids that conundrum by using Andouille sausage blended right into the soup.  Putting meat in the blender has never been high on my to-do list, but with this recipe, it's worth getting over the willies.  Use any Andouille you like-- chicken, pork, etc.  Another highly seasoned sausage like chorizo would work too!

The recipe is easiest with an immersion/stick blender.  Mine is 10+ years old, and was only about $30 when I bought it.  Worth the investment if you plan to make a lot of soups.

Split Pea Soup
1 1/2 cup dried split peas
6 cups chicken broth
2 links Andouille sausage (1/3 - 1/2 lb total), cut into pieces
1  cup frozen peas

1. Rinse dried peas and discard any oddballs.  Pour broth into slow cooker, add sausage and split peas.  Cover, and turn to low for five hours.

2. When done, turn off slow cooker and pour in frozen peas.  Using immersion blender, blend soup until it reaches desired consistency.  If you don't have an immersion blender, allow soup to cook, pour into a standard blender, add frozen peas and blitz a few times.

I find this make about five lunch-sized portions (1 1/2 cups each), more or less.