Whenever I have leftover ham, from a holiday feast, Split Pea Soup is a given for me to make. I’ve made this in my Instant Pot pressure cooker. However, it’s just as delicious made on a stove top– it’ll just take a bit longer. It’s hearty, freezes well and really hits the spot on a chilly night.
When my brother and I were little, my father would drive us to Oxnard, California– where his family lived. We’d pack into the back of his small Red Volkswagen Bug (we’re talking in the early 60’s) for the road trip. In between dad being the referee between squabbles from the kids in the backseat, he started a tradition to ease the boredom. In the city of Buellton, California, there’s a restaurant called “Andersen’s Pea Soup“. We’d eagerly look for the billboards that had the logo of their mascots, Happea and Pea-Wee that comes up every 100 miles, or so. Countdown… the games begin to see who will spot a bulletin board first!
The drive from Monterey, California to Oxnard took about five hours– but to us, that felt like a week! The reward was that Dad would stop for us to enjoy a meal at the restaurant. I still remember ordering “The Traveler’s Special”. I always chose a bowl of pea soup, a vanilla milkshake and the onion bread. What a weird combo! When my son was little, I carried on the tradition, when we’d head south to visit Disneyland.
To this day, my son and I still love pea soup.
What I like about Deb’s version, was that you needed to make a ham stock ahead of time. I also liked that she added Yukon Gold potatoes to the soup– Yukon’s are my all-time favorite potatoes. Let’s begin:
I was really pleased to find these ham shanks at my “Mom and Pop” grocery store.
I was even more pleased to see how much meat I got for less than $3.00! I’m definitely going to buy another one to keep in my freezer.
I proudly wear the tiara for “Gadget Queen”. I’ll take it! I am particularly fond of my digital pressure cooker– especially when I don’t want to make the stock one day ahead (because I was craving the soup).
NOTE: I have since upgraded to a newer Instant Pot Ultra.
After adding 3 quarts of water, to the ham hocks (these were shanks, actually), I pressure cooked them for 30 minutes. See how easy it is to release the steam? I push the button and it’s “Old Faithful”!
Chunky Split Pea Soup with Ham
Ingredients
- 2-3 smoked ham hock or 1 large smoked ham shank (see instructions below for ham stock)
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 large onion finely diced
- 2 celery stalks diced
- 3 carrots diced
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1 pound split peas, about 2 heaping cups split peas, rinsed and picked through
- 2 bay leaves
- 3 sprigs fresh thyme
- 3 quarts chicken stock or mixed ham and or stock of choice
- 2 Yukon gold potatoes diced
- 2 teaspoons Old Bay Seasoning or smoked or hot paprika or combination
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Instructions
Ham Stock: (optional, but a great way to use up leftover ham and adds great flavor)
- Place the ham hocks or shank in a large kettle add 3 quarts of water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer covered for about an hour or until shank is tender. Strain broth into a container, setting aside meat to cool, and place container in the fridge overnight. When meat has cooled pull from the bones, dice and refrigerate. After stock has set overnight, remove the hard layer of fat and use stock in soup.
- Note: I used my pressure cooker for this at 30 minutes to make this on the same day of the soup. A quick freeze, then chill helped me to skim the fat pretty easily.
Vegetable prep:
- Chop the onion, celery and carrots or use your food processor to make this quick.
- Bundle the fresh thyme with the bay leaves and tie with a kitchen twine for easy removal.
- Rinse the dried peas and pick through them before using.
- Dice the Yukon Gold potatoes into very small bite-size pieces.
- Chop the ham into small pieces. (The pressure cooker made the ham so tender, that it broke apart very easily.)
- In a large saucepan or Dutch oven, saute onion, celery and carrots in olive oil over medium-high heat for about 5 minutes, until they begin to soften.
- Add garlic and continue to sautee' another 2 to 3 minutes. Add dried peas, bay leaves, thyme and stock. Bring to a simmer and cook about 30 minutes, then add potatoes and cook another 30 minutes or until soup is thick, potatoes are soft and peas have almost but not quite disintegrated.
- Add ham meat and Old Bay Seasoning (or paprika) and cook another 10 minutes. Remove bay leaves and thyme stems and season, to taste, with salt and pepper. Purée very lightly with immersion blender or puree a couple of cups of the soup in the blender, so that soup remains very chunky.
Nutrition
Too funny! I am glad that you liked the soup and were able to recover from my typo–(somehow the 3 quarts mixed ham and chicken stock morphed into 3 of each or 6 quarts when I typed it! Double Yikes!), but it is fixed now. Glad you were able to make another great soup with the extra stock!
Great changes–I'll have to try the Old Bay sometime! Thanks for trying the soup, helping me find the mistake and sending it to Souper Sundays!
Aloha,
Deb
In my head I remember "Pea Soup Andersons," but it's definitely the same place. I have to confess that as an east coast gal, I'm not comfortable in California, but I remember this place fondly. I remember the soup was so thick you could stand a spoon up in it. I've always been afraid of pressure cookers, though my mom made THE BEST sauce (gravy, to her) in hers. I didn't even know there was a digital one. It looks a lot safer than the one with the "peacock"–that's what we called it when I was growing up. Thanks for the trip down Memory Lane.
I remember Andersen's Split Pea Soup! Delicious…the Kitchen Gnome brought me one of their cookbooks a few moons ago….great stuff. Looks delicious….so do the rolls.
You know how I feel about pea soup (vampire food) but I did enjoy your story!
ROAD TRIP! Oh, to go back in time for just one more "family road trip". Despite the squabbles with my sister, who always got car-sick, the memories are still some of my childhood favorites.
Debby, this Pea Soup is absolutely marvelous. Filled with some many great ingredients. I like the addition of Old Bay… a distinct flavor, but never takes away the flavors of the dish.
Thanks for the recipe & road trip memories…
Ah, split pea soup. One of our favorites. I've never tried Old Bay in it – great idea.
Sam
I have a leftover ham bone in the freezer – I may have to sub that, but split pea is one of my husband's favorite soups.
Thanks for sharing! 😀
First off I must hide this digital pressure cooker from my husband he woudl immediately buy one! Do you really like it, and what brand I have wanted one for sooo long and digital even better! That soup looks delish, I need to make some soon!
pea soup and a vanilla milk shake? I'll pass on the shake but this soup would be perfect for for the cold wet weather we've been having.
Isn't that restaurant famous for the soup? I think I've seen it on the travel channel…
I love this kind of soups. I just made a similar one with leftover ham and navy beans and I can't stop eating it!
Wow! They turned out great! Good work 🙂
Love pea soup and Old Bay, and your wonderful rolls! All looks great!
I'm going to have to look into a digital pressure cooker. That looks like a great gadget. And I had to laugh at the picture of all your soup containers heading for the freezer – mine looks exactly the same with all those blue lids!
What a wonderful tutorial on split pea soup! I love split pea soup, but have never found a really good recipe for it–YEA! Thanks so much for sharing.