Yellow Split Pea Soup with Shrimp and Ham

I wasn’t planning to do this recipe today. At all. But I was busy and I went into my freezer to grab a container of something to heat up in the microwave. When it was heated up I saw that it wasn’t what I thought it was. It turned out to be this container of Yellow Split Pea Soup, of which I had only one container left, and which I was saving to blog about on a day when I didn’t have time to cook something. Like an insurance policy, you know?

Well, it was heated up, so I had to photograph it, and because I didn’t have a chance to write about what I was going to write about, now I’m writing about the Yellow Split Pea Soup.

You see, I was going to write about the amazing day I spent at the studio of the world-renowned food photographer, Jon Edwards, watching a photo shoot for an international food market chain. And photographing Denise Vivaldo, Cindie Flannigan and Jeff Parker as they did the food styling for the photographs. I took 340 photos and I was planning on going through them all, sorting out the unusable ones, and choosing the ones to tell my story. Then photoshopping and maybe even finishing the writing. I had been procrastinating over the last week, but today I felt was really the day I would get that post done.

But noooooo…. I had to heat up the wrong container.

So – this is an easy, wonderful soup that is so tasty and filling. Something happens about half way through the cooking: the broth turns so sweet and becomes infused with the flavor of the parsley and basil. Sort of a magical transformation. This recipe didn’t start out with shrimp initially – that was something I added one day when I had some extra shrimp that I needed to use up. Well, it was so good, I have made it a permanent ingredient in this dish. It’s interesting how recipes evolve over time, isn’t it?

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Yellow Split Pea Soup

4 servings

1 tablespoon olive oil
1onion, 1/8-inch dice
½ carrot, 1/8-inch dice or shredded
1 garlic clove, minced or pressed
1 cup yellow split peas, rinsed and drained
6 ¼ cups water
½ cup ham steak or Canadian bacon, ¼-inch dice
2 tablespoons minced fresh Italian parsley
2 tablespoons minced fresh basil
1 teaspoon Kosher salt
½ teaspoon black pepper
½ pound raw shrimp, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces

1. In a large Dutch oven, over medium heat, sauté the onion, carrot and garlic in the oil until softened, about 5 minutes.

2. Add the water and split peas, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer, covered, until the split peas are tender, stirring once, about 1 hour.

3. Add the ham, parsley, basil, salt, pepper and shrimp. Simmer until the shrimp are opaque, about 2 minutes. Serve.