Pea & Ham Soup

Dinner | British

Prep time: 25 min Cook time: 2 min Servings: 6

Pea & ham soup is a dish I ate a lot of growing up. One side of my family is Dutch so my Oma use to make this all the time in the winter. It's a really easy soup to make, it just takes a bit of time to cook the split peas.

You will need to prep the split peas the night before. Just place them in a large container and cover with water and pop in the fridge overnight. This allows them to soften and rehydrate before being cooked in the chicken stock.

The cook will take about 2 and a half hours but you can pretty much set it and walk away. If you're making a small quantity, it won't take as long.

Ingredient Notes

Green split peas: Split peas are hulled and split field peas. The splitting is what allows them to dissolve into the soup and thicken it without any added starch. Look for them in the dried pulses aisle at the supermarket. Yellow split peas are a direct substitute and have a slightly milder, sweeter flavour if you prefer.

Smoked ham hocks: Make sure you’re buying smoked hocks rather than fresh, as the smoke is where most of the characteristic depth in this soup comes from. Two hocks for this quantity gives you the right ratio of meat to broth. We'll pull the ham hocks out before blitzing the soup and then adding the pieces of ham back in. You can use a pork bone leftover from a roast pork if you prefer, over the smoked ham hock.

Chicken stock: The chicken adds more flavour into the soup and you can swap it out for a beef or veg stock A quality store-bought stock works fine here. If your stock is already salty, hold back on any extra seasoning until you have tasted the finished soup with the ham stirred through.

Equipment

Chopping board
Chef’s knife
Large container (for soaking peas)
Colander
Large pot with lid
Stick blender
Wire rack and tray
Ladle

Ingredients

250g (1¼ cups) green split peas
1 carrot
2 shallots
2 sticks celery
4 cloves garlic
30ml olive oil
Sea salt, to season
2 smoked ham hocks
2 fresh bay leaves
2 L (4.22 pints) chicken stock
sliced chives, for garnish
toasted baguette, to serve

Directions

Soak the peas
Place the peas in a large container and cover them completely with water, ensuring there is at least 75% extra water above the peas. Refrigerate and soak overnight.
Drain the soaked split peas in a colander and rinse them under cold water until the water runs clear.
Cook your soup
Finely dice the carrot, shallots and celery. Roughly chop the garlic.
Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add the carrot and shallots, season with some salt and cook, stirring occasionally, for 3-4 minutes, until they are translucent.
Add the celery and garlic, stirring briefly to combine. Add the drained split peas to the pot, stirring to combine with the other vegetables.
Add the ham hocks and bay leaves to the pot, then pour in the chicken stock. Bring to a simmer, then cover and reduce the heat to low. Cook for 2 hours 30 minutes, until the peas are completely soft and the ham starts to come away from the bone.
Puree and serve
Uncover and turn off the heat. Remove the 2 hocks and set aside on a wire rack over a tray. Remove the bay leaves.
Using a stick blender, blend the soup until reasonably smooth. You can leave it slightly chunky if preferred. Taste the soup and adjust the seasoning, remembering the ham bone adds a lot of salt naturally.
Remove the ham from the hocks and break up into small chunks. Stir back through the soup, then ladle into soup bowls.
Garnish with some fresh snipped chives and serve with toasted baguette on the side.

Recipe notes

Chef Tips

Don’t skip the overnight soak

Soaking the split peas overnight rehydrates them evenly so they cook at the same rate as the rest of the pot. You can skip the soak and add 30-45 minutes to the cook time, but the texture won’t be as consistent. The rinse after soaking also flushes out the surface starches that can make the soup gluey rather than smooth, so don’t skip that step either.

Taste before you season

Ham hocks are cured and heavily smoked, which means they release a lot of salt into the broth over 2.5 hours of simmering. By the time the soup is done, the liquid is often saltier than you’d expect. I always taste after blending and again after stirring the ham back through before adding any extra salt. If you’ve used a salted chicken stock on top of that, there may be no additional seasoning needed at all.

Storage

Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days. The soup thickens considerably as it cools, so add a splash of water or stock when reheating and stir over low heat until loosened. It freezes well too. Portion into individual serves once cooled and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge and reheat gently with a little added liquid.

FAQs

Can I make this ahead of time? Yes, and it actually improves the next day. The flavours develop further as it sits overnight. Make it, blend it, cool it, and store in the fridge. Reheat gently with a splash of water or stock to loosen it before serving.

Can I freeze it? Yes. Portion the cooled soup into airtight containers and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw in the fridge overnight and reheat in a saucepan over low heat, stirring in a little water or stock to bring it back to the right consistency.

Can I use a different cut instead of ham hocks? Yes. A leftover pork bone from a roast or a smoked pork neck both work well. The key is using something bone-in so the collagen builds body in the broth. If you’re using a cooked leftover bone, reduce the cook time to around 1.5-2 hours and check the peas for doneness rather than going by the clock.