Pea and Ham Soup

The smell of a ham hock bubbling away to make a soup stock evokes so many childhood memories for me. Growing up it was the smell of wintertime with hearty soups being a regular dinner in our house. Mum would pop all the stock ingredients into a pot then place it on the wood fire in the evening. It would spend overnight there, simmering away and developing flavour. You would wake in the morning with the house full of the delicious aroma knowing that a warming soup would be coming for dinner that night. Sometimes it would be leek and potato, other times a minestrone. But so often it would be a thick pea and ham soup, perfect for warming the soul on a cold winter day.

Even now when I smell a good pea and ham soup, it takes me right back to my childhood. I taste the flavours of home and remember the many nights our family of six sat eating this delicious soup.  I love how smells and memories can be so closely intertwined. Nothing brings me greater pleasure than cooking something that has such a strong emotional connection to family. Pea and ham soup is one such thing.

This pea and ham soup has a little twist on the traditional version. I’ve swapped potato for roasted cauliflower and added in ginger and frozen peas. The cauliflower keep sit a little lighter and gives a wonderful toasty flavour. The ginger provides a background warmth to the soup and the peas add freshness which can sometimes be missing in a classic version. All round it’s a deliciously warming soup.