Split Pea Soup
January 23, 2021
I realize now how much I took the meals cooked in my home as a child for granted. The nursery school recipes that are simple, made with the modest of ingredients combined with time and effort turned into the most incredible smells and comforting meals. Beans slow cooked for hours, chowder made in the summer when corn was as sweet and crisp, and huge bowls of split pea soup with the leftover ham frozen from our last special occasion meal. Of course now we have ample access to fresh, seasonal, and affordable ingredients which feature regularly in our Erbe recipes and in our homes. I am endlessly grateful that here in California I can meander through a Farmers Market to buy fresh produce grown from farmers in our area year around but I am not always convinced that we have it better.
I say this because the dishes that I remember, that fill me with the comfort of home, that warm my soul on the hardest of days are those that were not born out of luxury grocery stores. The recipes that our parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents pass down were created out of necessity, out of using what is on hand, and out of a need to nourish their loved ones with the means that they had. I have found that these recipes might not always be done in less than 30 minutes or need to be plated with tweezers but are just as flavorful and in many ways more satisfying than eating at a Michelin starred restaurant.
Especially as we pause following the hectic holiday season and remain bound indoors by the persistent late winter, I am searching for the comfort of these tried and true recipes. I find that the most underrated of these classic dishes is split pea soup. For some reason it seems that split pea soup never graduated from its trope of being a moving prop and moved back into our kitchens. This will be our ploy to bring split pea soup back to dinner parties, lunch with friends, or a quiet evening on your own. The recipe below was developed after various iterations of attempting to recreate the split pea soup from my memory. Because I don’t always want to wait for leftover ham from a holiday dinner, we substitute with sliced ham and bacon combination that creates an incredibly savory and well-rounded end product.
The defining characteristic of recipes of old is how forgiving they are. If you have a leftover ham hock, throw it into the soup and omit the ham below. If you don’t eat pork, substitute turkey bacon for both the topping and for boiling process. This recipe can also be made for vegetarian/vegan guests by omitting the bacon/ham and replacing the chicken stock with water. We do recommend using homemade chicken stock (another practice from our grandmothers) but if you don’t have time for that, store bought is fine. We elevated our finished soup by topping with bacon, parmesan cheese, and homemade croutons. Just incredible. When you try this recipe you too will understand why split pea soup deserves to come out of the recipe archives and take its rightful place on our tables.
Ingredients
1 lb. Thick Cut Bacon
2 Cups Chopped Onion
2 Cups Chopped Carrots
2 Cups Chopped Celery
8 Ounces Ham cubed
4 Cloves of Garlic
2 Bay Leaves
1/2 tsp Thyme
3 Quarts Chicken Stock
1 lb. Dried Split Peas
Salt and Pepper to taste
Croutons (Optional)
Ground Parmesan Cheese (Optional)
Directions
Cut bacon into 1 inch pieces. Cook bacon pieces in a 4 quart stockpot on medium-low heat until rendered and crispy. Take your time with this process. It may take 10-15 minutes.
Remove bacon and place on a plate with a paper towel to drain. Remove all but 2 tbsp. of the bacon fat. Cook onions, carrots, and celery in the bacon fat with salt and pepper until onions are translucent and the vegetables are tender. Add garlic and thyme and cook until fragrant 1-2 minutes. Add the ham and cook for 1-2 more minutes.
Add 2 quarts of the chicken stock, split peas, and bay leaves. Bring to a boil and then lower the temperature to simmer. Cook stirring periodically for 1 ½ to 2 hours until the peas soften and begin to burst watching the temperature to maintain a simmer.
Stir more frequently toward the end of the cooking to prevent any sticking to the bottom of the pan. If needed add additional chicken stock during cooking to thin the soup to desired texture. Add additional salt and pepper to taste. Serve with cooked bacon, parmesan, and croutons as toppings.