Split Pea Soup

"Wonderful soup as is. However, I have made a few changes to "kick it up, a notch". I have added a bay leaf, a couple cloves of garlic, and a pinch of thyme. Instead of the ham bone, I used a ham hock ..." See moreand used up some left over ham cubes I had in the freezer. I also lightly sauteed the onions with some garlic in a little bit of EVOO before adding the Ham Hock. I also did half chicken stock and half water... sure makes a differance in flavor. I also find 2 cups of dried peas, instead of 2 1/2 is more than enough as this soup tends to end up a tad too thick. "

"I used this recipe as a base for my own creation. This was simply the best soup I have ever made. I did boil the ham hock in chicken broth instead of water for 1 hour ahead of time. Then I added the..." See more split peas and pepper (I omitted the salt). I added about 2 cups of diced carrots, 2 cups of celery and 2 cups of potatoes. I added 2 garlic cloves, some parsley flakes, thyme, onion powder (since I left the onions out), 2 bay leaves and the taste was amazing! I was going to blend the split peas before I added the other stuff, but they lost form and made the soup a lot thicker. I hope I can replicate this soup, it was off the hook! "

"This recipe is great and can be tweeked to your own preference. I threw all the ingredients into a crock pot, didn't rinse the peas and threw the ham bone in with all the meat on. I cooked it on high ..." See morefor several hours. I probably added more liquid than the recipe called for but then I just threw in a whole bag of dried split peas..so thought I would need more liquid. THe soup was REALLY thick, and so I add more chicken broth to every serving. I also used Thyme instead of marjoram as i didn't have that in the cupboard. I will definately use this recipe everytime I have a ham bone."