Healthy Newfie Style Pea Soup

We had Jiggs Dinner Sat. night. It was awesome. Whenever we have Jiggs Dinner (it's also known as a 'boiled dinner' or 'corned beef and cabbage' in other parts) I always get in the mood for pea soup. I usually make it out of leftover peas pudding but we like the peas pudding so much we hate to save it for soup. So today, since it's blustery and chilly, I made a pot of soup without using the leftover peas pudding but I did use the very tasty leftover broth from the boiling pot for the Jigg's Dinner. It turned out so good that from now on I'm always saving my leftover broth from Jigg's Dinner for pea soup! (It will freeze well so I won't have to make pea soup right away)




Serves 8, almost 2 cup servings (at least!) - 5 points per serving

• 2 slices back bacon, diced
• 2 ounces (60 g) prosciutto, diced
• 1 tbsp canola oil
• 2 cups diced onion
• 2 cups diced carrots
• 2 cups diced celery (don't like celery - try using 1 tbsp of celery seeds from the spice aisle, you can even grind them up to make celery powder, you just want the undertone for the mirepoix(fancy french word for stock base))
• 1 tbsp dried parsley and thyme
• 1 450g/1 lb bag of dried split peas, yellow or green
• 9 cups of low sodium veggie broth - you could need more broth if the consistency of the soup needs it for your preference.

Saute the bacon and prosciutto over medium heat. Add the oil, onions, celery and carrots and sweat (cook until tender over medium heat). Add the parsley and thyme and cook one minute. Add in the peas and broth. Simmer until the peas are the consistency you like. You may need more broth to make it the way you like it.

I topped ours with croutons (don't forget to add the extra points!) but it didn't need it. It's a pretty filling soup on it's own.

I used 6 cups of broth leftover from our Jigg's Dinner the night before. It was really fat free. I had trimmed a lean cut of corned beef when I made the Jigg's Dinner so there was no fat in the leftover broth. Plus it sat in the fridge overnight so any fat would have risen to the top to be skimmed off. I used the last 3 cups of broth from the organic section of the Superstore. It's a low sodium veggie broth.