Slow Cooker Split Pea Soup

I had never considered making Split Pea Soup in the slow cooker (Crock Pot) until I read about it on the Internet.  Making Split Pea Soup on the stove top is not necessarily difficult, but making it in the slow cooker is even simpler!  I looked at a few different recipes I found on the Internet and essentially the ingredients and directions were the same.  I settled on THIS recipe which I found on the Whole Foods Website.

Slow Cooker Split Pea Soup
from http://www.wholefoods.com/

Ingredients

1 (16-oz) package dried green split peas, rinsed*
1 meaty ham bone, 2 ham hocks or 2 cups diced ham (I used about 3/4 cup diced Black Forrest Ham)
1 cup sliced baby carrots (I used 3 medium carrots, diced)
1 cup chopped yellow onion (I used 1 yellow onion, diced)
2 ribs celery plus leaves, chopped (I used 3 ribs of celery)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 bay leaf
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley (I omitted)
Salt and pepper to taste (remember the chicken broth and ham already contain salt)
6 cups chicken broth (I used a 32 ounce carton and a 14.5 ounce can of chicken broth)

Method

Layer ingredients in slow cooker in the order given, adding the broth last. Do not stir ingredients. Cover and cook on high 4—5 hours or on low 8—10 hours until peas are very soft and ham falls off the bone.

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To use up what I had on hand, I added extra vegetables.  I am concerned I might have over-salted my soup a bit.  I did not consider how salty the ham is on it's own and also forgot to consider that most of the chicken broth I used was not the low sodium variety... so tread lightly with the salt! I think I added about 1 teaspoon of kosher salt when I started the soup in the slow cooker, so you might want to start with 1/2 teaspoon. After all, you can always add more at the end.  I think my soup was pretty much done in about five hours on the low setting.  I really did not keep track.  Whatever the case may be, the soup is delicious and it was so simple.