This flavorful Split Pea Soup is well worth the time and effort, and it is another excuse to use my new food mill. The Glen-Mor Restaurant served Split Pea Soup with Cornbread ^[1] baked in the shape of corncobs in a cast iron pan. After some deliberation we decided we didn’t need another pan, especially one shaped like corncobs, to store in our limited cupboard space.

Servings: 6

Fresh
   1-1/2 oz. ground salt pork
   1/2 medium onion
   2 stalks celery
   1 lbs. dried green split peas
   1 ham hock

Pantry
    4 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
   2 qt. beef stock

Prepare vegetables
Finely chop the onion and celery with a knife or in a food processor, set aside. Rinse the peas and remove any imperfect peas or other material, and set peas aside.

Sauté vegetables
In a large stock pot, cook the salt pork over medium heat for 3 to 5 minutes or until the fat is melted and the meat is browned. Add the onions and celery and sauté for 5 minutes or until tender.

Add flour
Add the flour to the vegetables and stir. Cook the flour for 3 to 5 minutes.

Simmer soup
Add the peas, ham hock, beef stock to the vegetables. Cover and increase heat to bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and crack the cover to let steam escape. Simmer for 45 minutes.

Process soup
Remove the ham hock and discard. Process the soup through  food mill.

Serve
Serve the soup warm with Cornbread ^[1].