Everybody makes theirs different and I want to hear how you do it. Here’s me:
Rough chop an onion and soften in soup pot with a bit of olive oil. Add mushed (or diced or sliced-- matters how I’m feeling) garlic. Stir. Add a bit of salt and pepper and oregano. Stir until it’s all good. How much salt? Matters how salty the ham was. And a LOT of pepper. More pepper than you think you need. And as you cook, add more pepper.
Next part depends on how I’m feeling and the pot is looking. Either put the bone in and turn it in the oil a bit so it-- well, not browns exactly. You know what I mean-- or add peas and mix it all in and then add ham.
Then add liquid. You could do all water and it wouldn’t be bad at all. It wouldn’t be really, really good but it wouldn’t be bad. I like to add half and half stock to water. This year I don’t have stock so it’s gonna be Better Than (got both roasted veg and roasted beef. Going for the veg) and water.
Let that go for an hour or two. Then add rough diced carrots and celery. And maybe potatoes. Let THAT go for an hour or two. There you have it-- Split Pea and Ham Bone Soup.
O.K., that wasn’t much of a ‘recipe’, that’s just me throwing things in a stock pot. But now you! How do you make ole SP&HB soup?
I’m eating with you. Yeah, very similar. Got bags of green splits and yellow splits in the basement, and sawed-up segments of a ham shoulder bone in the freezer.
I buy smoked pork shanks specifically for making split pea soup or ham ‘n’ beans. They have a lot of meat on them (unlike ham hocks).
Your recipe is pretty much mine. I fish the pork shank out of the soup when it’s falling-apart-tender, let it cool a bit, and then pull all the meat off the bone. I give the meat a bit of a chop and then return it to the soup.
My twist: a teeny bit of balsamic vinegar added to the soup balances out all the meaty, earthy flavors really nicely.
I make it pretty much like the OP but…and this is probably a big ‘but’…I don’t like peas, so I like to make bean and ham bone soup. Is there room for all legumes in this thread?
I normally use navy beans, but I’ve been on a bit of a pinto bean kick lately, and I bet a pinto bean and ham soup would be really good.
I buy ham a half at a time, anywhere between 7-15 pounds then parcel it out into individual portions, usually between 5-6. One of those gets cubed up and reserved for the soup.
Chop an onion, a couple stalks of celery, mince a few cloves of garlic (usually 3) and add dried thyme to taste. Saute briefly in olive oil. Then I simmer the bone along with the split peas until the peas are soft and the meat comes away from the bone. Pick the bone meat, add back to the soup, add the reserved ham and heat through or simmer until desired thickness is reached. If carrots and potatoes are desired, add them with the ham and cook till soft.
Lately my preference has run to Navy bean and ham soup. The recipe is very similar, except for that I do add carrots, a potato, a bit of cider vinegar and smoked paprika.
I will take split pea and ham bone soup made pretty much any way at all.
Which doesn’t answer your question.
Haven’t made it in a long time, though, so I’m not sure what my recipe is. I should probably consider adding it back into the rotation. Though split peas are quite high in carbs…
I confess I’ve never cooked with a ham bone. I make split pea soup with the simmer water & debris from corned beef. It’s also my favorite dish for highlighting marjoram.
Though they don’t eat much ham there, I’ll bet a Middle Eastern lentil & vermicelli soup would pair well.
I once made ham and lentil soup. No where near the yummy of split pea. And the reason why I say it’s ‘that time of year’ is because, I don’t know about you, but there is a lot of leftover ham bones during the holidays. Next up I’m thinking of asking how y’all make turkey tetrazzini.
My reason/season is during the St Patrick’s Day corned beef sales. But I was brainstorming ideas, and didn’t mean to yuck hammy soup and I like all sorts of peas. A Polish grocery near has a smooth blended split pea with ham but also a thicker one, not blended, and with chunks of smoked sausage, both great. And I keep an eye at the Asian grocery for when fresh pea greens dip to $5/lb or so (it’s usually $8-10/lb) and snag a bag on sale. They taste like snap or snow pods after a quick saute and they have neat tendrils and square stems.
I was in a gandules kick in the summer, Puerto Rican rice with (canned) pigeon peas which remind me of lentils or large split peas. I used dry cured/smoked sausage in there with a little green olive.
Should also add that I am, in fact, a Nuero Rican and arroz on gandules is. . . O.K.. My PR credentials are suspect because it took me over 40 decades to feel comfortable making a pot of rice.
Trying that “brown the ham bone in the oil a bit first” recommendation. Usually I just plop it in the water with the peas and seasonings and turn the burner on.
I live alone so when I make a batch most of it ends up frozen for eating later.
I don’t add potatoes when cooking it. When I remove the ham bone to shred the meat I blend the soup with a stick blender to mash the vegetables and peas. I was taught to always blend soggy vegetables in soups and stews, or discard them and replace with freshly cooked ones for serving.
When I reheat a portion later I add a serve of fresh separately cooked vegetables to a bowl - potatoes, pumpkin, cabbage, whatever I have and feel like. Mind you, this is not restricted tp pea and ham soup - I often cook a bowl of vegetables and add reheated soup (either frozen or store bought) to create a meal.
I do the same thing. There are the vegetables I use to flavor the broth or soup base, and then there are the vegetables I add to be the vegetable component of the soup. Those I only cook to my preferred doneness. E.g., peas in stew, I add them just a few moments before I serve it.
I also like smoked ham hocks and white beans in my soup. I do the onions and garlic thing, sauteing the onions until they’re caramelized, then adding the garlic for a few seconds before dumping it all into a stew pot full of chicken stock. I’ve made it with both raw Navy or great northern beans and canned beans and both are good; one just takes less time. Corn bread on the side, of course.
2 Tbsp. butter
1 med. yellow onion, diced
3 stalks celery, diced
3 medium carrots, peeled and sliced or diced
2 bay leaves
1 Tbsp. fresh thyme
salt
black pepper
2 cups dried split peas
6 cups chicken broth
1 smoked ham hock or ham bone
Melt butter in large heavy pot. Add onion, celery, and carrots, and cook until onions are soft. Add the bay leaves, thyme, and pepper. Add broth and ham hock/bone. Bring to a boil.
Turn heat to low, cover, and simmer for 1 hour. Remove bay leaves and thyme stems. Add half the peas and simmer for another hour. Remove ham and let cool. Add remaining peas and cook until soft but not disintegrated. Remove meat from bones and re-add.
3 T butter
1 onion diced
2 ribs celery diced
3 carrots diced
1 ham bone
As much leftover ham that looks good
1 lb dried split peas, rinsed
6 c chicken or vegetable stock
2 bay leaves
Salt & pepper.to taste
1 - Using the “sauté” function, melt the butter and sauté the onion, celery, and carrots until soft (about 5 minutes)
2 - Turn off “sauté” Add the peas, stock, ham bone, ham, and bay leaves
3 - cover and pressure cook on high for 15 minutes.
4 - allow the pressure to completely release naturally.
