June 1 may be the first day of winter in Australia, but winter doesn’t begin in the Lipscombe household until the first pot of pea and ham soup makes its appearance for the year.

Our pea and ham soup is not for the faint-hearted — it adds a new meaning to ‘hearty’, as you can literally stand your spoon up in it!

It’s the best comfort food for lunch on a cold winter’s day and it freezes well to take to work for lunch through the week.

Here’s the recipe:

Ingredients

1 large ham hock
500g green split peas
1 cup of pearl barley, rinsed
3 large brown onions, chopped
1/2 bunch of celery, chopped
4 large carrots, chopped
3 bay leaves
Olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Method

Place the ham hock in a large boiler of water and bring to the boil, cooking for just a couple of minutes — this helps remove any impurities or scum on the hock skin. Remove the hock and set aside; discard the water and wash the boiler in preparation for cooking the soup.

While the hock is blanching, chop the vegies (I put my vegies as they’re chopped into a large Glad cliplock bag, as there are a lot of vegies here and I can just discard it when I’m done — one less thing to wash up!).

Add a good splash of oilive oil to the boiler and add vegies, cooking for about 10 minutes until they’ve started to lightly brown.

Add the ham hock and remaining ingredients to the vegies and add enough water to cover. Bring to the boil and cook on a slow simmer for around 3 hours — you’ll need to stir occasionally, as this soup can stick, and top up water periodically as needed, depending on how thick you like your soup.

At the end of the cooking process, remove the ham hock. Strip the meat from the bone, shred it and return it to the soup. Stir through and serve with crusty bread.

Bon appetite!