_ With a lovely light and healthy meal like this, all I need now is to get the yoga mat bags  out and do my stretch exercises for a perfectly balanced lifestyle day.

My husband grew up on Pea and Ham Bone Soup that his mother made. Personally I didn't like it. The ham bone was always too smokey or salted for my taste but I must admit it sure flavoured up a soup.
My mum and I always made a beef thigh bone soup and we would ave added a swede to the recipe below and a lot of celery rather than those peas.
The thing with soup is you don't really need a cook book, you look in the fridge and use whatever takes your fancy. I never added cream to the soup but I love a generous dollop of sour yogurt in the centre of the soup added just before serving. How do you like your soup?

A friend shared her version on facebook - here it is.
1980 version of The Mennonite Cookbook. Then I'll share my differences. This is a good versatile recipe that allows for so much flexibility. Have fun with it! The ingredients & directions are in both Metric & Imperial.Yield:  5 L/qt.

Serves:  10 or more

Ingredients

1 - 1 1/2 kg/2-3 pounds soup bone

3 L/qts. cold water

15-25 ml/1-2 Tbps. salt

1 medium onion

1 medium head cabbage

4 medium carrots

3 medium parsnips

2 medium potatoes

125 ml/1/2 c pot barley

2 bay leaves

4 small chilli peppers

large bunch dill

large bunch parsley

1 can (284 ml/10 oz) peas

1 L/qt. cut tomatoes

1 container (284 ml/10 oz) heavy cream

Directions

Place soup bone & water in 6 L/6 qt. pot. Bring to boil and simmer two hours. Add salt. Slice onion and cabbage. Grate carrots and parsnips. Peel and cube potatoes. Add fresh vegetables, pot barley and herbs. Let simmer for one hour. Add peas, tomatoes and heavy cream. Bring to boil and serve.

Here's What I Did:

I did not use cabbage, parsnip, or chilli peppers. I used whole peppercorns, & I used several more bay leaves, although I don't know how many.

Instead of canned peas, I used frozen peas. I also used 3 potatoes instead of 2, & I didn't peel them.

Mom told me that it'd be more like borscht if I'd used the cabbage, & I'm going to try that next time. She also said that if you don't want to use a bone, you can use prepared broth, but it might not be the same. I'm going to stick with the bones myself.

I didn't grate the carrots - I peeled & sliced them, & I used fresh parsley & dill, & I just ripped up the parsley into various sizes. Instead of fresh tomatoes, I used canned, but either one works.

I used whipping cream since that was the heaviest cream I could find, & I used a bit more of that than the recipe asks for.

I followed the directions, & after the second boil, I let the soup simmer for hours to let it cook up even more.