Split Pea Soup and Dough Boys...

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Get ready for a tasty soup...

Ingredients:

1/2 pound bacon (or salt beef)

2 carrots chopped

1 onion chopped

2 pieces of celery chopped

1 1/2 cups of split peas

6 cups of chicken broth

rosemary

salt and pepper

Directions:

I use bacon because I find it much easier to keep on hand than a bucket of salt beef... chop up the bacon and cook it in a large pot... cook it on very low to render down the fat... 

after the fat is cooked out of the bacon drain any excess fat but leave enough to cook the carrot, onion and celery and bacon... I add a little bit of olive oil at this point as well as the salt, pepper and rosemary...

once the vegetable soften up put in the 6 cups of stock and the cup and a half of split peas...

bring the soup to a boil and then turn it down on a simmer... let the soup simmer for about an hour... then comes the fun part... put your immersion blender in the pot and puree the soup... or if you don't have a immersion blender pour the soup into a blender or food processor and puree the soup...

If you don't have an immersion blender run out and pick one up... we got ours a Costco a few years back... its great for smoothies!..

Once the soup is pureed put the lid back on and keep it on the stove on low...  you want the soup to get good and hot before you drop the dough balls in... but if you turn it up any higher than the lowest setting it'll burn onto the bottom... 

Now for the dough balls:

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups of flour

3 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1/4 cup of butter

1/2-3/4 cup of water

Directions:

Whisk the dry ingredients together... drop in the butter and make a crumbly mixture with a pastry blender... once you have a crumbly mix pour in half a cup of water and stir the mixture until you get a doughy mix... if it is a little dry add the rest of the water... I find here in Calgary, because it is so dry, that I need the whole 3/4 cup of water...

Mix the water into the dry mix with a spoon until you get to the stage in the photo above... pull small balls from the dough blob and drop them into the soup... toss the lid back on... leave the stove on low and put the timer on for 15 minutes...

...when the timer beeps take the pot off of the hot burner and take a look at your handywork!.. the dough boys are all puffed up and cooked...

My fave way to eat the dough boys is to have them right in with my soup... Furs on the other hand likes them separate from his soup and with molasses on them...

Let me know how your soup turns out!..

This batch turned out great... I'm chowing down on it as I finish writing this blog post!.. 

Om nom nom nom!..