Split Pea Soup Recipe
Our split pea soup is an easy recipe that makes the best use of your leftover holiday ham bone. Cook this freezer friendly homemade soup on the stovetop or in the crockpot. Make a big batch of this cold weather comfort food for your family to enjoy!
Servings: 20 cups
Calories: 262kcal
Ingredients
For the Split Pea Soup
- 3 14-oz bags dried yellow split peas picked over and rinsed
- 15 cups unsalted chicken stock reserve 3 cups for the end
- 1 yellow onion peeled and quartered
- 4 bay leaves
- 1 teaspoon dried marjoram
- 4 teaspoons salt reserve 1 teaspoon for the end
- 1 ½ teaspoons black pepper reserve ½ teaspoon for the end
- 1 meaty ham bone reserve some meat for garnish
- 2 cups yellow onion chopped
- 1 ½ cup carrot chopped
- 1 cup celery chopped
- 2 cups smoked ham diced
For the Garnish
- Reserved ham from bone
- ⅓ cup sliced green onions or flatleaf parsley
Instructions
Stovetop Instructions
- Pick out any green peas or little pebbles from the dried peas, then rinse them in a colander. There's no need to soak them.
- Place the peas, 12 cups of chicken stock, the quartered onion, bay leaves, marjoram, salt, and black pepper in a very large pot. Nestle in the meaty ham bone, then cover and bring to a boil (roughly 15 minutes) then reduce the heat to medium low and simmer for an hour, stirring occasionally.
- While it's simmering, use a food processor to chop up the carrots, celery, and onion.
- After an hour of simmering, remove the bone from the split pea soup and place on a plate. Discard the quartered onion.
- Add the last 3 cups of unsalted chicken broth, onions, carrots, celery, chopped ham, 1 teaspoon of salt and ½ teaspoon black pepper. Stir. Cover with the lid askew and simmer for 30 minutes on medium low, stirring occasionally. After 15 minutes, taste. Adjust seasonings if desired. (If you like it thinner, add more unsalted chicken broth or filtered water.)
- When the bone has cooled, cut off the meat and finely chop it. Add most of the ham to the pot, but reserve some for garnish. Taste and adjust the salt or black pepper as desired. Discard bay leaves before serving.
- Garnish with finely chopped ham, parsley or green onion. Serve hot with fresh crusty bread.
Crockpot Instructions
- Reduce the ingredients for this recipe by half.
- Put all the ingredients, except the quartered onion, in a large crockpot and stir.
- Cover and cook on high for 5 hours, or on low for 10 hours.
- During the last hour of cooking, remove the bone and let cool. Shred the meat from the bone and put half of it in the pot. Reserve the other half for garnish.
- Discard bay leaves before serving.
- Garnish with chopped ham, parsley or green onions.
Notes
- Substitute with 2 ham hocks if you don't have a leftover bone.
- Use half green peas and half yellow if you want to change up the color.
- Add more stock or unfiltered water to thin the soup.
- Use a blender, immersion blender or potato masher to smooth the texture.
- Put the pot in an ice bath in your kitchen sink, if you need to cool the soup quickly. Make sure the pot has cooled down some so there is no damage done to the pot or sink.
Nutrition
Calories: 262kcal | Carbohydrates: 41g | Protein: 21g | Fat: 2g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 8mg | Sodium: 752mg | Potassium: 864mg | Fiber: 16g | Sugar: 6g | Vitamin A: 1735IU | Vitamin C: 4mg | Calcium: 54mg | Iron: 3mg
