Monk's Lunch Part I

We recently spent a few days learning about monks of the dark ages.  One of the things mentioned was what monk's ate.  I heard split pea soup and brown bread and my mind immediately jumped to two recipes I have been wanting to make.  One was (of course) split pea soup.  I had saved a ham bone with some ham still attached and had been trying to get up the courage wanting to make it.  The other recipe was one for a flaxseed Focaccia bread, which is probably as close to brown bread as a gluten free person can get.

Today I am sharing the split pea soup recipe.  One of the best parts is that it is in the CROCK POT and takes very little effort.  Not sure where I got the original recipe, but I tweaked it a good bit.  Here is what I came up with....

Split pea soup in crock pot

Cook Time: 8 hours

Ingredients:

• 1 (16 oz.) pkg. dried green split peas, picked through and rinsed
• 1 meaty ham bone,
• 3 carrots, sliced (I use organic, so I don't peel, but please do peel if it grosses you out not too)
• 1 chopped onion
• 2 ribs of celery plus leaves, chopped
• 1 or 2 cloves of garlic or 2 tsp. garlic powder
• 1 tsp. thyme
• 1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped, or 2 teaspoons dried parsley flakes
• 1 tsp salt (the original called for 1 TBSP salt, however way to salty for me!)  salt to your taste
• 1/2 tsp. fresh pepper
• 1 1/2 qts. hot water (I filled my crock pot near full, I didn't measure LOL)

Preparation:
 Layer ingredients in slow cooker in the order ingredients are listed above; pour in water. Do not stir ingredients. Cover and cook on HIGH 4 to 5 hours or on low 8 to 10 hours until peas are very soft and ham falls off bone. I assembled mine right away in the morning and it was ready 7 hours later.  Remove bones. I poured what was left into the blender and blended it up in batches. I then picked chunks of ham off the bone and added it back in.  This soup made a ton!  We had probably 3 meals worth of soup.  Serve with Flax Seed Bread or GF croutons. Freezes well.

Apparently our kitchen is too sunny!  LOL

We enjoyed our split pea soup, flax seed bread and water while listening to the Gregorian Chant of the Benediction monks.  It was supposed to be with the boys silent, like the monks, but who am I kidding????  And with a glass Kombucha, of course!