The ultimate comfort food!
Split pea soup used to be a hearty classic, but it seems to have been overshadowed by more trendy dishes. You don't see it much in restaurants or home kitchens anymore.
But I'm bringing it back, and this recipe will do the trick.
The two most important things are the quality of the smoked ham and the richness of the chicken stock.
No homemade stock on hand? Don’t worry. While there may not be any perfect replacements from the store, you don't have to settle for just water. Use the best boxed or canned chicken stock you can find (don’t go for the cheap stuff), and consider adding a spoonful of "Better than Bouillon" chicken base. Then, to enhance the texture, stir in some unflavored powdered gelatin—about 1 teaspoon per cup of stock (4 tsp per quart). It’s affordable, easy, and really works wonders.
But I'm bringing it back, and this recipe will do the trick.
The two most important things are the quality of the smoked ham and the richness of the chicken stock.
No homemade stock on hand? Don’t worry. While there may not be any perfect replacements from the store, you don't have to settle for just water. Use the best boxed or canned chicken stock you can find (don’t go for the cheap stuff), and consider adding a spoonful of "Better than Bouillon" chicken base. Then, to enhance the texture, stir in some unflavored powdered gelatin—about 1 teaspoon per cup of stock (4 tsp per quart). It’s affordable, easy, and really works wonders.
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batch
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Ingredients
Main ingredients (listed in order they should be added to the pot)
- 2 Smoked Ham Hocks — Readily available in the grocery store, but extra points if you smoke your own!
- 2 bay leaves
- 16 ounces dried green split peas — Normally come in a 16oz bag. *See "notes" below if substituting dried beans.
- 2 cups diced smoked ham — Farmland brand "Smoked Spiral Ham Slices & Pieces" are PERFECT. (diced meat is just under 1/2 lb per cup)
- 1 tsp Black peppercorns — More if you know your audience will enjoy it - but DEFINITELY not more than double. Lightly crushed, or ground as coarsely as possible. Sometimes I leave them whole, but not everyone would enjoy that.
Sliced Veggies (ok to mix and add together)
- 1/2 cup chopped onion
- 1 cup sliced carrots
- 2 ea sliced ribs of celery plus leaves
- 2 cloves minced garlic — Feel free to double this if your audience will not object.
Liquid
- 6 cups chicken stock — or water if you must. But home-made chicken stock really makes this "pop".
- 2 tsp seasoned salt (e.g. Lawry's) — Presumes unsalted stock. Salt is tricky in this recipe because the variable saltiness of the hocks and smoked ham. Strongly recommend you err on the side of cooking with too little added salt. After cooking, add more "to taste" as needed.
Later
- 1/4 cup fresh chopped flat-leaf parsley — Reserve to add near end of cook
- Optional flavored croutons — serve on the side, or toss a few on top just before serving.
Ingredients
Main ingredients (listed in order they should be added to the pot)
Sliced Veggies (ok to mix and add together)
Liquid
Later
|
|
Instructions
Prepare & Cook
- Rinse the peas thoroughly in a colander. Check carefully for foreign objects.
- Dice any meat chunks that are bigger than you want in your bowl (but leave the ham hocks whole for now).
- Dissolve the seasoned salt into the stock and set aside. If you want to speed things up about an hour, heat the stock to a simmer before adding. Don't cook for less than 4 hours, to be sure your peas get to the right texture.
- Layer ingredients (except parsley) in slow cooker IN THE ORDER LISTED in the ingredient list (important!). NOTE: feel free to treat the mirepoix (onion, celery, carrot) as one ingredient.
- Pour stock over the whole thing. If the hocks are not fully submerged, add more liquid.
- Cover and cook on high 4 to 5 hours, or on low 8 to 10 hours. DO NOT STIR FOR THE FIRST 2 HOURS.
- At about 2 hours, stir to mix the ingredients. Then stir roughly once an hour. If inconvenient to stir hourly no big deal — but don't skip the first mix around the 2-hour mark, or the final mix after the parsley is added. If your cooker is pretty full, to avoid a mess it might be best to remove the hocks, mix, then nestle the hocks back deeply into the soup. The last couple of hours you must be very gentle with them so they don't fall apart and risk leaving small bone bits in the soup. Even when careful there may be the occasional bone. You can avoid that problem by placing them in muslin cooking pouches, which still allows the hocks to cook just fine.
- If cooking on "high" setting, every time you check it, pay attention to how well it's simmering. Once it's got a pretty solid simmer going, drop the temperature setting to low. For the rest of the cook it will still be simmering, but a bit slower, preserving more moisture. If enough moisture is lost that the hocks are no longer fully submerged, add more hot liquid.
- After cooking, gently remove the hocks and set aside to cool. Careful, they will be fall-apart loose. I use tongs in one hand to hold them, and a big kitchen spoon or something underneath to support the weight and hold them together while removing.
- From this point forward, keep an eye out for the bay leaves. Whenever you see one pluck it out and discard it.
- Stir in the parsley, wait ≈ 15 minutes then unplug the cooker, or set it to the "Warm" setting until you are ready to serve.
Finish & Serve
- When the hocks have cooled enough to handle, hand-pull them to separate the meat. Dice or shred the meat and mix it back into the pot. Discard the bones, fat & skin.
- The soup looks a little thin at first, but have faith. It thickens A LOT as it cools, and has great body.
- Make a final patrol for hidden bay leaves.
- Serve garnished with croutons, or maybe some hearty tearing-bread on the side. Store-bought croutons can be pretty good, but if you're feeling adventurous... https://ourbestbites.com/sourdough-garlic-herb-croutons
- For future experiment: instead of discarding the hock skin, fry it under a press until crispy, dice, and add to soup. I haven't tried this yet. If you try it, let me know what you think (steve at KillerNoms dot com).
Recipe Notes
A batch and a half fits nicely into a 7qt slow-cooker (large). A double batch will fit a 10qt cooker (huge). And a single batch will fit a 5qt cooker, but 4qt will be not quite enough.
Towards the end the hocks get loose enough to pose a risk of shedding small bone chips into the soup when you removed them. Usually not, but I just finished a single batch that left 4 small chips in the soup. From now on I'm going to seal my hocks in muslin bags before adding. Should cook the same, but will end the bone problem. Don't want anybody to choke. The bags are re-usable.
If you can't do the mix at the 2 hour mark (like when you are setting this up before going to work and having it ready when you get home), go ahead and mix at the start. It will still be excellent.
A batch using dried beans instead of split-peas made a soup that was quite different, but just as great. It did seem that the beans absorbed more of the liquid, resulting in more of a "chili" texture than soup. I think I'll increase the liquid about 25% if I try beans again.
Freezes great, either in ziplock bags with the air expelled, or in "freezer safe" canning jars. Leave an inch of headspace for expansion.
View online at KillerNoms.com/splitpea
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