Split Pea Soup

It's been a bit on the nippy side recently, and the depths of winter are upon us, so what better time to make split pea soup. I like mine with ham, but with a few alterations we'll discuss it's very easy to make this a vegetarian dish. Dried split peas, like lentils, are cheap and easy to find, plus they cook without any additional preparation and they're filling.

You Will Need:

• Split Peas
• Ham?
• Onions
• Other Vegetables?
  
• Spices
• Oil
• Salt/Stock/Bouillon Cubes
• Water
  

Split Peas

If you happen to have them, you can make this soup with toor dal instead (toor dal is just split pigeon rather than green peas) but the traditional way is with split green peas. Buy them dry in the supermarket, and there's no reason to pay more for a brand here; the generic will do just fine. One pound makes four healthy servings, particularly if you have a nice crusty bread to go with your soup, but this soup freezes well and making more is just as easy.

Ham?

The best way to make this soup is with the leftovers of a ham dinner. Buy a bone-in ham, eat most of the meat, then chuck the bone in the freezer for a winter day when you have time but are feeling a bit lazy. That requires a bit of forethought and preparation though, and maybe you just want to put this together on the day. In that case, the next best thing is to get a smoked ham hock from the grocery store, or see if the butcher has a ham bone you can buy.

Those are the best case scenarios. If you're doing this in a worse case, buy a ham steak or get the deli to cut you some thick pieces of ham, or buy deli ham in a package. You could even buy a boneless ham, about a pound, if it's available and you're planning on making more soup. Basically, any way you get the ham in is fine, but it'll obviously taste better if you have a bone and can slow-cook it. If you're using deli ham or similar, you won't have to cook it as long and you'll just dice it and add it when you add the peas.

If you're looking for a vegetarian option, stay tuned to the Other Vegetables? section.

Onions

Got to have 'em. Okay, not really, but if you don't at least add onions to this, you'll make your ancestors cry. They give a nice base to the soup. If you can't add onions, check out the Other Vegetables? section because you need some vegetables in your diet. For 1 pound of peas I typically add 1 pound of onions, but you could stretch that if you're making more than 1 pound of peas.

Other Vegetables?

If you're adding ham you don't have to add anything else, but you certainly can. If you're not adding ham, you need more flavor in the soup, so we'll get that from veggies.

The French have a mix they call "mirepoix" which you'll see fancy cooks talking about because they don't want to admit that it's just onions, carrots, and celery. Yep, that's all it is. Equal parts, and it gives a nice base to many things. Sauté it a little and it breaks down and stops tasting like fresh vegetables, and you won't need to add any stock or funny business.

But why stop there? If you're going vegetarian, in particular, you can bulk this soup out. Potatoes diced to small bite size work wonderfully in here (and if you're adding ham, the potatoes soak up that ham flavor), though you'll probably want to add another cup of water with them. You can add some spinach, or diced squash, or diced turnips. Really, anything wintery works well in this soup. I would avoid tomatoes unless they're diced and drained because you don't want the soup to go brown on you. If you add things late, green beans, peppers, or even zucchini would work as late additions so they don't cook too long.

Spices

Okay, here's where we'll get exact. You will want garlic and ground coriander seed, plenty of both. You will also want ground cumin to add a little earthiness back in. And thyme, rosemary, and oregano, heavier on the thyme, lighter on the rosemary. Sauté all of them with the onions until the raw smell goes away. You can adjust the herbs at the end.

If you're doing the vegetarian version, all those spices still go, but a good way to capture the ham flavor without the ham is a dash or two of liquid smoke, or to roast whole coriander and cumin seeds and grind them instead of using the ground from the bottle. Smokiness is good here. I'm pretty sure liquid smoke is made without any animal products. Another option, if you like a little spice, is to add a bit of chipotle (or another smoked chile). Basically anything which will give you that smoked flavor without altering the flavor profile of the dish too much will work here.

Oil

You'll need enough to sauté the vegetables and bloom the spices, a teaspoon or two. If you're adding ham, particularly with a bone, you won't need any additional fat, but if you're making this vegetarian you might want a bit more.

Salt/Stock/Bouillon Cubes

So you can just use salt. That's perfectly fine. But if you've got some stock, and a little of that. If you're using ham on the bone, it'll make its own stock so you don't need much, but particularly if all you have are onions, you might want a little more flavor in the base. A cup or two of stock substituted for water might make all the difference. Between the ham and the stock, you shouldn't need to add much if any additional salt. 

But if you're frugal, like me, and you don't pay for overpriced water, use a Maggi cube or similar, added instead of salt during the sauté phase of things. If you sauté bouillon cubes, they become much less harsh, and you can then add the water later and wind up with a more mellow, balanced stock.

Water

6-8 cups per pound of peas, or so the package says. I'd err on the side of less water, but you may need a certain amount to cover your ham. You can always add more, but getting rid of it, particularly once you've cooked the peas, is harder. If you only add 4 cups or something to start with, keep checking and making sure your soup isn't burning to the bottom of the pan. The starches in the peas will make that more likely.

Conversely, no shame, you're feeding a crowd and stretching things, add the full 8 cups, maybe with a bit more salt and spice if you can spare it.

You Will Also Need:

A pot

You'll want a fairly big one for this. Better to have more pot than you need. I use my giant stock pot, but you want something that's going to hold all the water you have to add plus all the peas and the ham if you're using it. Think big. They sell stock pots in many places, usually quite cheap because they don't require much to manufacture.

A spoon

Paging the Hon. Capt. Obvious, your table is ready. No, but you'll actually want a spoon and a ladle to get the soup out if you've got one.

Lets Give Peas a Chance!

To start, dice your onion (or use frozen), carrots, and celery (if you're using them), and sauté over medium heat. Add the herbs and spices toward the end, when the vegetables are wilted and the onions are starting to look a little translucent. Stir constantly so you don't burn anything. Add salt now too, or bouillon if you're using that. It'll help pull out the moisture from the vegetables.

Once you've got the onions nicely translucent (basically, they stop looking white but haven't started turning brown), we come to a crossroads.

If you're not using ham at all, add your water/stock now. Now is also a fine time to add any other vegetables you might be using like potatoes or turnips which take a bit to cook. Skip over the ham discussion and straight to the peas.

If you're cooking a ham bone or smoked ham hock, add your bone and then add water/stock now. As mentioned above, the package calls for as much as 8 cups, but I wouldn't add more than 6 right now. Try to cover as much of the ham as possible, but if some of it sticks out, just make sure you turn it over every so often as it cooks. Cook that ham for an hour over low heat, just a simmer, until the meat is falling off the bone or until you can't stand waiting any more time and you pull it out and tear the remaining bits of meat off.

Pull the ham out and let it cool in the fridge so you can tear it into little pieces and pull out any gristle. While you're waiting for it to cool, skip to the peas.

If you're using deli ham or ham steak or something that isn't a bone, dice the ham up into bite-size pieces and sauté it in with the vegetables and spices. Give it a little frizzle to build its flavor. Then add your water/stock and skip to the peas.

The peas

Add your peas.

Okay, so the package will tell you to sort them and make sure there aren't any rocks, and you can do that. You can rinse them too. I have never gotten a rock in my peas, and while I rinse dal I usually don't bother with split peas because I want that extra bit of starch to thicken the soup.

Cook your peas on a simmer, whatever heat you need to get it there, until they are tender and falling apart. You'll see it happen. One minute your soup will be broth with green orbs in it, the next it'll be green sludge. And that makes it sound super appetizing I know, but trust me, that's what you want. It should take between 15-30 minutes, given the vagaries of peas and how old they are, but keep checking because you don't want them to burn. If things are getting thick, add a little more water; you can always add more but it's hard to take it away.

Now, if you had to pull your ham (no jokes please) you can add it back in at this point, and/or any other quick-cooking vegetables, and let everything warm up for five minutes or so. Then taste for salt and seasoning and serve. This is a soup, so it shouldn't be thick, but the consistency is up to you.

Variations

Aside from the various vegetables you can add, the variation I would suggest is if you are trying to make more with less. Add rice and more seasoning. If you're making it with a ham bone, that bone will flavor a double batch of this soup with rice just fine, though you might need to add some additional salt. Add the rice with the peas and add an additional two cups of water for every cup of rice you add, at least.

Give this one a try on a gloomy winter day. It's surprisingly hearty and bright, and makes good use of ingredients you might otherwise not find a use for. This is cookable.