Split Pea soup with Ham

This is the first thyme I've made this soup & it turned out great. Here's what I used.

2# dried peas
4 yellow onions, diced
8 cups water
4 large carrots, diced
5 celery sticks, chopped
5 large bay leaves
ham shank w/ about 2# meat on it, from a spiral sliced ham

I soaked the peas over night, I don't think it's too necessary. Rinsed.

Sautee the vegetables & garlic in 1 tbsp evoo or butter for about 7 minutes.

Throw in the ham bone w/ meat on it

Add:
8 cups water
1 tbsp salt
black pepper to taste
2 tbsp vinegar based hot sauce
2 tbsp dry thyme

simmer lightly for 1.5 hours (I used an 8 qt stock pot, uncovered)

Pull ham bone out, let cool for 20 minutes, then pull/chop the meat off of it and add it back in with:

2 tbsp balsamic vinegar, salt to taste

I got the idea here.

That's exactly how I used up my spiral sliced ham from New Year's and I pretty much followed your recipe. It turned out great

It's a keeper, that's for sure. Someone posted to just soften the veggies and requested the amount of garlic.... amount of garlic was ~1-2 tbsp.

I like what balsamic vinegar does to chili, decided to try it here, & the bay leaves just seem to add some richness - both of these are hard to put a finger on but definitely noticeable.