So, I bought a hamhock at the butcher and plan on making some slow cooker split pea soup tomorrow. I figured I’d pop over here and see if anyone has any particularly yummy recipes or tips they’d like to share for my souping tomorrow. 
I used a combo of chicken broth and white wine for mine once, turned out great. 
I was listening to NPR the other day and Nigella Lawson was on… one of the recipes was for a pea puree with Thai green curry paste. I was thinking I’d try that with some modifications the next time I cook split peas.
Drizzle some balsamic vinegar on top when you serve it. Yum!
The soup of my forebears, snert (aka ertwensoep!)
I use my Nana’s split pea soup recipe (well… more of a guideline than a recipe), and it’s fantastic. Nice and THICK - you’ll need to add water when you reheat it.
Split Pea Soup
Ingredients:
2 lbs split peas
1 1-1.5 lb meaty smoked ham shank
(optional: onion, carrot, celery)
2 ½ tsp Lawry’s Seasoned Salt (I’ll throw some celery salt in there, too, if I have it)
1 ¼ tsp Liquid Smoke
¾ tsp Worcestershire sauce*
¼ tsp ground rosemary or ground herb blend
1 bay leaf
¼ tsp hot sauce OR cayenne pepper
Pinch white pepper*
¼ - ½ tsp garlic powder
Sift through split peas, making sure there are no rocks. Put peas and ham shank in a large (~6 qt) stock pot. Cover with water. (Optional: add a roughly chopped onion, carrot, and celery to the pot.) Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for ~1 hour, until peas are soft all the way through.
Remove meat (and onion, celery, and carrot, if used. Discard the veggies.). Using a stick blender, blend peas and water until smooth. If you don’t have a stick blender, carefully put the peas and water into a regular blender and blend until smooth. You may have to do multiple batches. Add the bay leaf.
Pull or cut the meat off the bone, and cut it into small (1/4”) chunks. Discard the bone and the gristle.
Add the other ingredients into the peas, to taste. Remove the bay leaf. Put the soup back over medium heat until hot again. Add the meat. Serve.
Makes 8-10 servings.
*The last time I made this, I added more Worcestershire sauce and more white pepper, and it needed less salt. It was good, too. Play around with the seasonings until it tastes good to you!
Hmm, I have some in the freezer… maybe that’ll be my lunch today!
Made this soup many times, Julis Child via Parade magazine then done here excellently:
Ya know, I’ve tried to make SP soup about a hundred times from scratch, and I’ve never even come close to regular old Campbell’s quality. I’ma try these recipes over the next few weeks. Just wanted to say “thanks” y’all!
A touch of marjoram for the scent and a handful of finely minced carrot for a little color.
Put the broth somewhere cool overnight and scoop off some or all of the fat.
A cheating trick my father told me: If your soup isn’t thick enough for your druthers, add a little bit of instant mashed potato, dry from the box.
Snert is good stuff. Extremely filling and warming - real winter food. It’s not mentioned in that recipe, but traditionally, it’s served accompanied with thinly sliced smoked bacon on Frysian rye bread (a very dense and slightly sticky variant of rye bread made with broken - not milled - rye).
From the text just before the recipe==
I have cans of thisin my desk drawer at work, so I’ll proffer a suggestion veering a little North of the border:
[Old Man] Back in my day we called it liberty bean soup. [/OM]
Celery, garlic and chopped up onions added to the soup take it to another level and if you must some finely diced carrots are great.