Name: Split pea and ham soup with ham and cheddar jaffles
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 165 min
Total time: 185 min
Yield: 4

Split pea and ham soup with ham and cheddar jaffles

Split pea and ham soup with ham and cheddar jaffles recipe - Heat butter in a large saucepan over low-medium heat. Add onion, fennel and garlic and sauté until tender (6-8 minutes).

Serves 4

Prep

20M

Cook

2H 45M

Total

3H 5M

Pea and ham soup is a classic winter warmer. Here we’ve nabbed a little of the ham hock to use in the cheesy jaffles we’ve served on the side.

Ingredients

40 gm butter, coarsely chopped

2 onions, finely chopped

1 fennel bulb, finely chopped

4 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 ham hock (about 1.2kg)

500 gm dried green split peas (2¼ cups)

360 gm frozen baby green peas (3 cups)

1 cup baby spinach (firmly packed)

½ cup mint, plus extra to serve (firmly packed)

½ cup flat-leaf parsley (firmly packed)

Finely grated rind and juice of ½ lemon, or to taste

Ham and cheddar jaffles

Softened butter, for spreading

8 slices soft white bread

Dijon mustard, to taste

60 gm coarsely grated vintage Cheddar (½ cup)

Method

Main

1.Heat butter in a large saucepan over low-medium heat. Add onion, fennel and garlic and sauté until tender (6-8 minutes). Add ham hock, cover with cold water (about 4 litres), bring to a simmer, then reduce heat to low, half-cover with a lid and cook until ham is falling from the bone (1-1½ hours). Remove hock, cool, then discard skin and bone. Shred meat and reserve.

2.Meanwhile, add split peas to the stock and simmer until very tender (45 minutes to 1 hour). Add baby peas and simmer until bright green (1-2 minutes). Stir in spinach, parsley and mint to just wilt, then purée with a hand-held blender (or in batches in a blender) until smooth. Stir in lemon rind and juice, season to taste and keep warm.

3.For the jaffles, heat a jaffle maker. Butter bread slices, then place half the slices butter-side down on a work surface. Spread with mustard to taste, top with ham hock (you won’t need all the meat; add remainder to soup), then cheese. Season to taste and sandwich with remaining bread butter-side up. Toast in jaffle maker until golden brown (3-4 minutes). Scatter soup with extra mint and serve hot with jaffles.