Need help cooking split peas

Cafe Society
1

I love good split pea soup but I haven’t learned to cook the dried split peas very well.

I’ve tried to soak them the same as I’ve done with other dried legumes, but either I keep doing something wrong, or there’s an inherent difference between the split peas and the other dried items.

I soak for hours, drain and rinse, soak somewhat longer, then simmer. This method does well for limas, Great Northerns, kidney beans, but not the split peas. They never get quite as tender and soft as the others.

Can the Dopers here help me out? I’m getting hungry just thinking about a big bowl of pea soup, with ham hocks, carrots and onion.

2

I never soak split peas. I just rinse, bring to a boil, then simmer.

Mine always turn out very tender and thick.

3

Ditto. They should take much less cooking than the others.

4

I recently discovered the joy of the crock pot. Split pea is one of the things it does really well.

Try this.

Add five cups water, one bag split peas, a diced onion and a ham bone to crock.

Set to 4 hours “high” setting

Walk away, come back four hours later remove bone and stir, perfect.

Add your diced carrots and potoes an hour befor serving if you use them.

5

EvilGhandi nailed the best method.

You don’t have to soak split peas. Just boil and simmer.

6

Thanks for the replies! I’ll give the rinse and simmer method a try tomorrow, and will give the results. I do have a slow cooker.

Pea soup is just the thing for this time of year. Now I have to go find a good ham hock.

7

If you have a crock pot, which I don’t. I agree you don’t need to soak them though.

I have a bag of Hurst’s split peas sitting right here. It doesn’t say anything about soaking. Just add your ham flavoring, onion, carrots, etc; heat to boiling and simmer 30 minutes. Stir occasionally and test for doneness.

8

Don’t soak. Wash well, bring to a boil and simmer for 1-2 hours with chopped onion, carrot, celery…a little thyme, a bay leaf, a pinch of cayenne.

You don’t really need the ham bone. I made pea soup for years with a ham bone AND chicken stock, but I did it recently with just the above ingredients (supposedly the original recipe from Andersen’s restaurant in Buellton, California) and it ROCKED.

9

Or, rinse the peas and cook them a while with a lot of peeled garlic cloves. When they’re soft but still hold their shape, ladle out about 2 cups and puree or mash them a little and return them to the pot. Chop up a tomato or two and throw it in. When the tomato bits start to lose their integrity, dump in a good amount of sherry and a few tablespoons of sesame oil. Lower to a simmer and dump in around two cups of fresh frozen peas. Cook until they’re tender. Adjust seasoning.

10

Shoshana, that sounds great! As soon as I try the slow cooker method, I’m going to try that one as well. I’m one of those people who thinks just about anything is improved with garlic!

11

Sorry about this, but can’t resist.

Do you know the difference between pea soup and mashed potatos?

Anybody can mash potatos.

12

That sounds delicious. I’ll give this a go next week sometime. I don’t have sherry - can’t stand the stuff frankly- do you think something red and fruity would do just as well?

13

Yes, red wine works well, too.

All my measures are rather approximate because I cook by tasting and adjusting.

14

I tend to use “the handful” as my primary measure of solid ingredients, and “the guess” for liquids. Works well most of the time. :smiley:

15

Don’t like sherry, eh? Try Manzanilla. You’ll thank me later.

16

I’ve tasted more than a few kinds of fino, and I just don’t like the stuff. I can’t stand brandy either. I suspect the two things are related. Sorry.

17

try this recipie from Emeril

18

OMG that sounds orgasmically good.

19

haven’t tried it myself but I saw your need for a recipe so foodnetwork.com is where I go when I need a good easy recipe. If you make it let me know whatcha’ think. :slight_smile:

20

I second Shoshana’s recommendation to remove about a third and puree it, and return it to the pot. I always make mine vegetarian, so I don’t know if this would be good with ham in it … but I recommend serving with a big plop of plain yogurt on top. Stir it in and you’ve got an amazing cream of split pea soup!

I’ve also cooked yellow split peas; they’re good too.