Slow-Cooker Ham and Black-Eyed Pea Soup
Peasant food, cucina povera, whatever you want to call it, this soup descends from a cooking tradition that focuses on maximizing the flavor of humble ingredients. With little more than beans and a ham hock, which is more bone than meat, it’s almost confounding that this soup turns out so delicious. The slow cooking certainly contributes, simply by allowing time and heat to extract as much flavor as possible from the ham hock. Not that this couldn’t be done with stovetop cooking, but who wants to stand over the stove when you could leave this cooking all day and come home to dinner?
Ingredient
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 2 medium carrots, chopped
- 2 medium stalks celery, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
- 1 carton (32 oz) Progresso™ reduced sodium chicken broth
- 3 cans (15.8 oz each) black-eyed peas, drained, rinsed
- 1 smoked ham hock or shank
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian (flat-leaf) parsley
Direction
- Spray 5-quart slow cooker with cooking spray.
- In 12-inch skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Add onion, carrots and celery; cook and stir 5 to 6 minutes or until vegetables soften. Add garlic and thyme; cook and stir 1 minute. Transfer to slow cooker.
- Add broth, black-eyed peas and ham hock to slow cooker.
- Cover; cook on Low heat setting 7 to 8 hours or until meat on ham hock is tender and easily separated from bone.
- Remove ham hock. Remove ham from bone; discard bone. Shred ham; return to slow cooker, and stir.
- Skim off any excess fat from top of soup. Add parsley, and serve.
