# Split pea soup for leftover Easter ham & bone



## profnot (Apr 1, 2018)

Ham is nicely priced this time of year so I made this split pea soup last week.  Warm and filling during cool spring weather.

Split pea soup - slow cooker
Start 2 - 3 days before serving

1 cooked ham, bone in
1 can low sodium chicken broth
1 med onion
2 - 3 med carrots
1 - 2 ribs celery
1/2 t dried rosemary
1/2 t dried thyme
1 lb dried split peas, washed
2 t Worcestershire sauce or more to taste
Black pepper to taste
1 lg potato (for removal of salt only) 
Oil
Sour cream for garnish


Preheat slow cooker to low.  Add broth.

Trim skin and fat from ham.  Then remove as much ham as possible from bone.  Set aside.

Place bone in large slow cooker.  Raise heat to high or automatic (1 - 1.5 hrs at high, then auto reduce to low).  Add enough water to cover.  Add rosemary, thyme, and pepper.

Coarsely chop 1/4 of onion and half of one carrot.  Slice 1/4 - 1/3 of potato into thick 1/2” slices.  Add all to broth.

Cook in slow cooker overnight.  While cooking, chop as much of ham meat as you would like to put into soup.  Store in frig, covered.

Next day, remove bone, veggies, and bay leaf from slow cooker and discard.  Cool the broth to room temp.  Pour through a mesh sieve into bowls or containers.  Place bowls in frig to chill for an hour or more.  

When broth is cold, remove from frig, discard fat on top, and return broth to cleaned slow cooker.   Turn on cooker heat to low to start to bring to room temp.

Rinse split peas and add to slow cooker.  Cook on high heat until peas are soft - 40 minutes or longer.

Chop onion and slice carrots.  Cook in oil over med high heat until caramelized and soft.  Once peas in slow cooker are soft, add onion and carrot pieces to broth.  Stir to mix.

Soup may have too much broth at this point, depending on how much water you had to add to cover bone.  If there is an excess of broth, transfer it to containers and freeze for another use.

Transfer most of broth and veggies to a lg bowl and set aside.  Transfer remaining mixture in slow cooker to food processor or blender.  Puree until smooth.  Return to slow cooker. 

Then puree rest of pea/broth/veggie mix from bowl in batches, always transferring to slow cooker when done.

Add Worcestershire sauce and another dash black pepper, stir.  Add cubed ham and stir.  Slice rest of potato into 1/2” thick slices, add, and stir.  (Potato slices are only meant to absorb excess salt from ham.)

Cook on high for 1 hour or more - until ham is warmed and soup is hot and thick.  Remove potato slices and discard.  Taste soup and add more Worcestershire or pepper as needed.

Serve soup in warm bowls with a dollop of sour cream on top.  

(Do not add sour cream to batch of soup.  Do not freeze soup with sour cream in it.)


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## buckytom (Apr 1, 2018)

That sounds good, prof. 

But why remove the spuds? I have a similar recipe (sans celery and thyme) that I got from my MIL where she would separately par boil potatoes, then add them into the soup to finish cooking but still be a textural as well as extra flavor component in the final dish.

Thanks for the recipe and reminder. I've just stripped and wrapped todays ham bone joint. Gonna try adding thyme and celery as I like them very much together in other dishes.


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## Termy (Aug 6, 2021)

These days when you bake a ham you not only get the grease but also this broth type stuff which is full of ham flavor. This is because they pump water into it to get the weight up. As such unbeknownst to many is that it is not a staple, it will spoil with that liquid in it. However after the liquid is removed, that is what the whole I deal was in the first place with ham. Bacteria needs water. The oven and a good bake removes the moisture to the bottom of the pan, where you collect it of course. 

I got some of that juice frozen, I wonder when I'll get it out. I got split peas and I think other veggies... I dunno. 

T


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## Chief Longwind Of The North (Aug 7, 2021)

There are many recipes for split pea soup, some using just a ham bone, some using roasted ham, some using ham cubes, with others using uncured pork or even bacon, or smoked ham hocks.   ['ve even had split pea soup made with coned beef. There are so many ways to make this.

There are also multiple ways for making split pea soup so that the pea solids remain suspended in the broth.  The trickiest way is to use the correct ratio of liquid to peas.  This is my favorite as you get full split pea flavor.

A second method is to bind the soup.  This involves making a standard flour/butter roux, and thinning to a thick sauce by adding pea soup broth to the roux.  The sauce is stirred back into the soup, and will keep the pea solids in suspension.

The third method is to use mashed potatoes to bind the soup.

And then, there is French Canadian peas soup, which is more brothy, and uses whole, dried yellow peas, blank pepper, a bit of carrot, sliced onion, and a small amount of ham, or Canadian bacon to help flavor the soup.  It's another favorite.

Here are two pea soup recipes from my Souips, Stews, And Chowdrs cookbook.  Enjoy.

*Split Pea Soup*
	There are three ways to make this soup.  The first is the way it is normally found in restaurants, that is, full of peas, with some carrots, onion, and ham, all sitting at the bottom of a cauldron.  The second uses a roux to bind the soup, that is, to hold the solid particles in suspension.  It is smoother and much more enjoyable than the first method.  The third method just uses so many peas that there just isn’t enough broth left over for the solids to settle to the bottom.  We will use the second choice.  It has the best balance of flavor.

*Ingredients:*
2 cups split peas, rinsed and drained
3 quarts water
1 cup diced Ham
1 onion, chopped
2 carrots, grated
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. black pepper
¼ tsp. Colgin’s Liquid Smoke
3 tbs. all-purpose Flour
3 tbs. Sunflower or light Olive Oil
	Place the water, split peas, salt and pepper into a large pot.  Bring to a gentle boil, cover, and cook for 30 minutes.  Add the remaining ingredients, except for the flour and oil, and cook another twenty minutes.
	Heat the oil over a medium flame in a 2-quart saucepan until fragrant.  Add the flour and stir until a smooth past is formed. Ladle broth from the soup into the saucepan, stirring vigorously with a sire whisk until smooth.  Keep adding broth until the paste is transformed into a sauce.  Remove from heat and stir into the soup.  Serve with crusty bread and butter.
*

*Canadian Yellow Split-Pea Soup*
There is a brand of split pea soup made by a Canadian Company that I have enjoyed for as long as I can remember.  They use yellow peas instead of the familiar green peas we all know so well.  The result is a savory soup with a more delicate flavor.  Yet, it is satisfying, and makes a great appetizer, though I usually eat it as a meal by itself.

As this great soup isn’t available to many of you, I give you the homemade version.  It is worth the effort.

Ingredients:
2 cups yellow split peas
1 qt. Water
2 tsp. Sunflower Oil
1 cup chopped onions 
¼ tsp. dried Sage Leaves
½ tsp. Salt
2 oz. Canadian-style Bacon, diced
2 Carrots, sliced thin
1/8 tsp. Colgin’s Liquid Smoke

Rinse and drain the peas.  Combine the peas, salt, and water in a 3-quart saucepan. Cook over medium heat to a gentle boil.  Cover and simmer for thirty minutes.

Slice the bacon into 1-inch pieces and place into a ten-inch heavy skillet. Cook until slightly crisped.  Stir in onions and carrots.  Continue cooking until onions are tender.  Stir the bacon, onions, and carrots into the saucepan.  Add remaining ingredients and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to low, cover, and let simmer for fifteen minutes.  Stir frequently to avoid sticking.  Add more water as necessary to get the consistency you want.  Serve as a warm appetizer to a pork roast dinner, or with whole-wheat dinner rolls and butter.


Seeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North


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## Termy (Aug 8, 2021)

I almost never get the ham out the oven fast enough and then there is not enough usually. When I do I also use that ham juice from the bottom of the roasting pan. 

With the bone if I can get it and the ham juice I cook the split peas. And this is not one of them "broth first" things, wouldn't work. 

At first mainly the beans are cooking, put in the bay leaves, finely chopped garlic and onions. 

Once the beans are cooked in that stuff, add your carrots and celery. (find and remove the bay leaves)They'll get done fast and then you are ready to eat. But actually you put the stuff in the fridge and it is better the next day. 

T


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