Quick pea and ham soup (suitable for babies)

This pea & ham soup makes a hearty, healthy meal for the whole family including a puree for babies from 7 months old. It’s high in iron, zinc and fibre.

Preparation time: 15 minutes (plus soaking time)
Cooking time: 30 minutes
Difficulty rating: Easy
Age recommendation: 7 months and above
Number of servings: 6 adult serves

Ingredients:

• ½ kg split peas
• 1 onion
• 2 cloves garlic
• Small knob (1 teaspoon) of reduced salt butter to sautee
• 3 sticks celery
• 3 carrots
• 1.5L boiling water
• 350g shortcut bacon (all visible fat removed)

Method:

• Soak the split peas in water overnight or for a few hours (they will take a bit longer to cook if you don’t soak them for long).
• Rinse split peas and put to one side.
• Dice onion, peel garlic, peel and chop carrot into small pieces, wash and chop celery into small pieces.
• Remove all visible fat from bacon and cut into cubes.
• Sautee all veg (except peas) and bacon in butter until fragrant and slightly browned.
• Add in boiling water and split peas and cook on medium-high for 30 mins or until all veg is softened. Stir every so often to ensure it does not stick to the bottom and burn.
• Use a hand wand to puree- this makes the soup easier for babies and kids to eat. But you can serve it as is, if you like your soup chunky and your children are old enough.
• Serve with crusty wholemeal bread.

Tips:

• This makes quite a thick puree, if too thick for your taste add more water.
• This recipe is high in zinc and iron and makes a fantastic baby puree too. Give it to your baby after they have already experienced the taste of the individual ingredients (by eating single ingredient purees) as this will make it easier for baby to get used to the taste.
• If preparing as a baby puree, leave a few soft lumps for babies 8 months and older. As they age, babies need lumpier purees to help them develop the chewing muscles.
• If preparing this recipe for someone who is gluten intolerant, look for split peas labelled gluten free, or take extra care cleaning them to ensure any small buts of wheat that may have mixed with the peas during processing are removed.

Nutritional content:

Per adult serve

References

1. AusNut. Nutrient Database. 2007. [cited 27 April 2012]. Available from: URL link
2. Queensland Health. Introduction to Solids. 2008. [cited 8 December]. Available from: URL link