Split Pea Soup
Published January 28, 2023
David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews.
- Total Time
- 2 hours 20 minutes
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
6 slices bacon or 1 (1-pound) smoked ham hock, or 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more as needed
2 medium leeks, white and pale green parts rinsed and thinly sliced (about 1 ¾ cups)
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 medium onion, diced (about 1 ½ cups)
Salt and black pepper
2 medium carrots, scrubbed and diced (about 1 ½ cups)
1 pound dried split green peas
2 fresh thyme sprigs
8 to 12 cups chicken stock or water
Lemon wedges, for serving (optional)
Nutritional analysis per serving (4 servings)
56 grams carbs; 47 milligrams cholesterol; 618 calories; 15 grams monosaturated fat; 5 grams polyunsaturated fat; 9 grams saturated fat; 31 grams fat; 10 grams fiber; 2141 milligrams sodium; 29 grams protein; 22 grams sugar
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
- Step 1
If using bacon: In a large pot or Dutch oven over medium heat, cook the bacon until crisp, 12 to 13 minutes. Transfer the bacon to a plate lined with a paper towel, leaving behind the rendered fat for cooking. Once cool, crumble the bacon and set aside for garnish. If using ham hock: In a large pot or Dutch oven over medium-high, heat the olive oil, then brown the ham hock until golden, about 6 minutes. If making the soup vegetarian: In a large pot or Dutch oven over medium heat, heat the olive oil.
- Step 2
Add the leeks, garlic and onion, and season generously with salt and pepper. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until tender, about 5 to 8 minutes. (If the vegetables seem dry, add a little olive oil.) Stir in the carrots, paprika (if using), half of the split peas, thyme and 8 cups stock or water. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer, partly covered, stirring occasionally, for about 45 minutes until peas are tender.
- Step 3
Mash the soup coarsely with a potato masher or give it a few quick blitzes with an immersion blender (watch out for the thyme sprigs). If you’d prefer a smoother soup, blitz until nearly smooth. Add the remaining ½ pound split peas and simmer about 1 hour, or until the peas are soft. If at any point the soup looks too thick, add more stock or water; if it looks too thin, remove the lid during the second simmer until it thickens. If using ham hocks, remove any meat from the bone, cut it into small cubes and stir into the soup. Season soup to taste with salt and pepper. Serve with crumbled bacon, if using, and lemon wedges.
Soup can be made 1 week in advance. Add stock when reheating if needed.
Private Notes
Comments
I make a Dutch smoked ham and pea soup recipe that’s very close to this—except you use yellow peas instead of green, and you add diced celery root and yellow potatoes along with the diced leeks, carrots, and onion AFTER cooking the ham and peas for about 2 hours. The veggies cook in the simmering soup for about 30-45 minutes. This way the soup is not monkey-puke green, it has a more complex taste, and the vegetables are colorful and intact. Once I tried yellow peas, I never cooked green again.
Just found this in the article! “ It doesn’t seem like a midweek recipe, but you could put all the ingredients into an electric pressure cooker with around 6 cups of stock, cook it on high pressure for 20 minutes, use a manual release of the steam to blitz the peas, and have it for dinner on Tuesday night in under an hour”
I’m just home after 9 months in hospitals and rehab (had foot reconstruction then caught Covid in a nursing home) and have missed good food in a big way. Finally mobile enough to stand in the kitchen for shortish periods—chopped onions; took a break; chopped carrots; break; diced a ham steak; break—and finally put it together using some beautiful organic split peas my sister sent. LOVED IT—and can’t wait to dig into the many NYT Cooking recipes I craved and saved during my time in Covid hell.
I used beef neck bones, added paprika & nutmeg from the comments. Didn't have scallions, I added 2 celery spears and a thick slice of rutabag. Only used 8 quarts of organic chicken stock. I used my immersion blender a bit to get to my eye-ball preference of mash the peas. I browned the necks bones a little at the start, took them out of the pot and replaced them for the last 20 minutes of simmer. The soup was very tasty.
This soup is really delicious made exactly as is. The lemon juice at the end is a game changer. Don’t skip it.
SO DELICIOUS! With the following changes: - as some others did, I used a large hamhock to make stock (15 hours in 6-qt slow cooker on LOW made 10 cups which was perfect amount. Chilled overnight, removed fat. Removed meat from hock and saved; discarded fat/skin/bones). - added 2 bay leaves to soup for entire simmer - added 8 oz boneless ham steak cut in pieces to soup for final hour of simmer, along with the hamhock meat. - immersion blender worked well for initial purée (removed thyme sprigs/bay leaves first, added bay leaves back in after blending). - I followed directions to add 1/2 of split peas initially then the other half at the 45-minutes mark. Everything cooked and softened just fine. - Reheated to serve, it just gets better! - Served with hearty whole-grain bread and green salad. Definitely 5 stars. I wasn’t sure my anti pea husband would like this, but he loved it!