Split Pea & Sausage Soup

Split pea soup used to be one of my favorites growing up.  Maybe it's because I got older or a certain soup company changed their recipe but I haven't really had it in a long, long time.  Despite their being sausage in this soup instead of ham, this brought back memories of growing up and the delicious soup that I made often.  I was also happy that I had just made the 6 quarts of chicken stock two weekends ago so I was able to thaw and use some of that for this soup.

Split Pea & Sausage Soup

2 1/4 cups green split peas, soaked overnight in water and drained
6 cups unsalted or low salt chicken stock
1# carrots, peeled and thin sliced
1 cup celery, thin sliced
2 bay leaves
2 cloves garlic, grated
1/2 pound smoked sausage, sliced with casing removed
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

Place the chicken stock in a large soup kettle.  Add in drained split peas, carrots celery, bay leaves and grated garlic.  Cook over medium heat until the peas are tender. Remove the bay leaves.  Mash the peas in to soup or use an immersion blender.  Add in sausage slices.  Taste and then season accordingly.