What do you do with your leftover ham from the holiday? My mom would always be creative with her leftovers, one of my favorite meals she made with her leftover ham was when she’d coat it in breadcrumbs and fry it, it was always delicious. For me, I knew I would make ham sandwiches, I also knew I’d make a homemade split pea soup as both of these options are my favorites.
I made an decadent ham for Easter this year, I say that because I don’t usually love my ham, often times I try too hard to create the perfect glaze or I over cook it, making it very dry and brittle. This year I listened to my friend Drew who said “just follow the instructions on the package and it will come out fine”…I’m not an instruction kind of a girl but I did follow the instructions and it came out great!!!
Today I made a bagel pretzel sandwich with my leftover ham by using baby swiss cheese and a little mustard…it sure was yummy!
I knew that split pea soup was on the horizon with the leftover bone and ham…and since it was raining yesterday, I decided to just go ahead and make the soup today. I had a lot of errands to do so I just pulled out my crockpot, put all the ingredients in the pan and carried on with my life!
Here is what I did, I sautéed my carrots, celery and onions in a little butter and oil
check the dried split peas to make sure there are no rocks or debris, then place them on the bottom of your crockpot
clean up the ham by removing the meat (next time I need to remove the fat as well as the fat is not needed for the soup)
place the bone on top of the dried split peas and add broth and sautéed vegetables
About 1 hour into cooking I decided to add more onions, so I sautéed onions with garlic and chopped rosemary and added that to the crockpot (next time I’d do it in the beginning)
I cooked it for about 5 hours, just before serving it I added a bag of frozen peas as I like the texture frozen peas makes with the soup, I served the soup with some shredded cheese on top and cornbread on the side…YUMMY!
So here are a few options for your using leftover ham from the holidays, a sandwich on a pretzel bread, fried for dinner or in a soup. For those working parents the ease of making split pea soup homemade will be well worth it. If you are burnt out on ham from the holiday, freeze the bone and use it to make this soup another time when you can appreciate it.
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Thank you again ~ Patty Limatola-Tanenbaum
Ingredients
- 1 cup Carrots, diced
- 1 cup Celery, diced
- 1 whole Onion, diced
- 1 tablespoon Oil
- 1 tablespoon Butter
- 2 cloves Garlic, chopped
- 2 tablespoons Rosemary
- 16 ounces Dried Split Peas
- 5-6 cups Water (Or broth of choice)
- Ham Bone
- 2 cups Ham, cubed
- 1 bag Peas, frozen
Directions
- Remove the dried split peas from the bag and go through to make sure there are no rocks or debris. Place the dried peas in the bottom of your crockpot. Place the ham bone on top of the dried split peas.
- Saute your onions, carrots, celery, garlic and rosemary with the oil and butter until the vegetables are just becoming tender, place in your crockpot; add the cut up ham to the pot as well.
- Place 5 cups of water or broth in your crock pot and cover. Cook for 5-6 hours on low, uncover, remove the ham bone and add your frozen peas. Serve with oyster crackers or with a little cheese on top. Enjoy!