St. Patrick's Day Low Fat Slow Cooker Split Pea Soup With Bacon

Submitted by animalcracker

"Some might say this is a generic split pea recipe but it's easy and cheap and since I made it on St. Patrick's day that's what I'm calling it. It just happens to be green too. This is also a great recipe if you're feeding a family or you want to have soup on hand later in the week or to keep in the freezer. It's low fat because the crumbled bacon used was 50% leaner than cooked bacon and it's the only fat component in the dish."

 

• Ready In: 6hrs 10mins
• Ingredients: 7
• Yields: 12 Cups
• Serves: 10-12

ingredients

• 2 (16 ounce) packages dried split peas
• 4 1⁄3 ounces bacon, Hormel 50% less fat real crumbles
• 1 small white onion, or, half of a large white onion finely chopped
• 2 cups carrots, sliced or coarse chopped
• 11 cups water
• 2 bay leaves
• 3 tablespoons salt (optional)

directions

1. In a crock pot/slow cooker, combine water, carrots and onion and cook on high till carrots bite easily but are not soft. (About 2.5 to 3 hours).
2. Empty the dry peas into a strainer and inspect for stones or other unwanted items. Rinse with cold water and empty into crock pot with bay leaves and salt. Cook on high for two hours.
3. Empty bag of real crumbled bacon into mix and cook at additional hour.
4. Serve hot.
5. (NOTES)
6. #1. Cooking the peas for at least three hours on high in a crock pot creates it's own creaminess and I do not recommend adding dairy to this recipe at all. Since I like my peas with a bite that matches the consistency of the bacon, I cut the heat after three hours. But if you like your pea soup more smooth, cook an additional hour or two.
7. #2. You can omit the salt from the recipe as the bacon will add enough sodium to the recipe, but I think the salt highlights the sweetness of the peas and carrots.
8. #3. You could omit the bacon to make it completely Non-Fat, but I don't think it would taste as good.