Cozy and Quick Split Pea Soup

There is nothing quite like a bowl of split pea soup on a chilly winter day! Here in Southern California, we finally got some rain! On days where you just want to wear fuzzy socks, curl under the blankets, and binge watch your favorite series, this quick and easy split pea soup is the perfect meal!

Ingredients

It just takes a few simple ingredients. The first thing you need is your mirepoix. Mirepoix is just a fancy French word for the base of your soup which is: carrots, celery, onion, and garlic! Other ingredients include cooked ham (I’ll talk further about the ham later on), chicken broth, a couple seasonings, and of course the star of the show: dried split peas!

This recipe uses diced cooked ham. I’m using leftovers from a spiral ham we had on Thanksgiving. I separated the leftovers (including the ham bone) into freezer bags for me to use in future recipes… including this split pea soup! Any kind of ham will be fabulous in this soup. Here are some other ham options and tweaks to the recipe you can use.

Ham options

Bacon: Of course bacon would be great! It goes in anything… right? Just cut up the bacon and fry it in the pot beforehand. Remove the cooked bacon, but leave the grease in the pot to sauté your veggies. Hello flavor! Towards the end of the soup cooking process add in the cooked bacon, stir and you’re all set.

Ham bone: If you’re using a ham bone, I would suggest using it to make your own broth. Just place the bone in a pot and fill it with fresh cold water. Bring it to a boil then let it simmer for a couple hours. Remove the hambone and shred off any meat on the bone and set aside. Skim the broth to remove any impurities that have floated to the top. Use the ham broth in place of the chicken broth and add in the removed meat to the soup near the end of the cooking process.

Smoked ham hock: I have made this recipe with smoked ham hock before and it turned out amazing. Follow the same steps I listed for the ham bone to make a broth from the ham hocks. A couple things to note: remove any unwanted skin, fat, or cartilage from the ham hocks before returning the meat to the soup. Also, ham hock tends to be very salty. Take extra care to wait until the end and taste your soup before adding any salt!

Prepping the split peas

The last thing I want to go over before diving in to the recipe is the dried split peas. I have always been told to search through the bag of split peas to search for any pebbles. I have yet to ever find one, but it’s a good practice to do. When you rinse your split peas through a strainer, and let them sit for too long, the peas will stick together like glue and it becomes difficult to transfer them into the pot. So my advice is to wait until you are ready to add in the peas to your soup before rinsing. This way you can transfer them from the sink straight to your pot before they clump together.

How to make the soup

Start by heating olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add in the onion, celery and carrot and sauté for 3 minutes until your mirepoix is translucent. Add the garlic and sauté for an additional minute.

Pour in the chicken broth and water. Add split peas, ham, and thyme. Stir gently and break apart any clumps in the split peas. Season with pepper to taste.

Bring the soup to a boil, then reduce heat to low. Cover the pot, and let the soup simmer for 1 to 2 hours, stirring occasionally.

Taste soup for seasoning. If desired, add salt to taste.

Ladle the hot soup into a bowl and serve with crackers or your favorite bread.

Cozy up and enjoy!