SPLIT PEA SOUP

Split Pea Soup a classic comfort food

It’s not all that often that a comfort food is jam packed with stuff that’s good for you, but split pea soup is an exception. Split peas are in the family of legumes. Other legumes are kidney beans, pinto beans, navy beans, well you get the gist. Have you cooked with dried legumes? If you want a nutritional bang for your buck, dried legumes can’t be beat. They are loaded with fiber and protein. They are also very filling. There are an endless number of recipes that feature dried beans.

Finding dried split peas

Most, if not all grocery stores will carry dried legumes, and split peas are a pretty popular choice, so my bet would be you can find them everywhere. If you haven’t bought them before, here’s a tip for for finding dried beans at your store. They are usually found on the bottom shelves. The space on the bottom shelves isn’t worth much for marketing products, so the grocery items found there will always be the least expensive of that section. Eye level shelves are utilized to promote impulse buying. And it works! How often have you seen an item you weren’t looking for but decided you should pick up to have on hand? Marketing is a science.

As a general rule, a shopper is looking for something specific if they are browsing items on the bottom shelf. The bottom shelves will have staple items, such as dried beans. Salt is usually found on the bottom shelf, possibly a second one up if it’s a name brand. You need it, so you will look to the bottom shelves to find it. The eye level stuff in that section will be the pricey name brand herbs and spices.

Easter ham bone means split pea soup

I had a ham for Easter. A whole ham is one of the main course meat choices that usually yields more than one meal. And, after all the sliceable meat has been eaten, you are left with a ham bone. When I see a ham bone, I think of split pea soup. We have another soup posted that is made with legumes and a ham bone. It’s Ricky’s CABBAGE and BEANS. It’s equally as good and nutritious, but my own “go to” for a ham bone is split pea soup.

I really like split pea soup, but no one else in my family does. That’s a problem. A one pound bag of split peas makes a BIG batch of soup. So it’s not too often I make it. Like most cooks, if there is a meal that only I like, I won’t go to the trouble of making it for myself. That’s especially true when the meal yields enough to feed an army. Most years the Easter ham bone hits the freezer or the trash.

But this year, just as I was getting ready to trash the ham bone, I remembered that I never made good on a promise I made some time ago.

Making good on a promise

My son John has a lifelong friend that still lives in the neighborhood. His name is Joey. I have had the opportunity to watch him grow from a boy to a man. He is very special to me.

A few years ago, Joey came to a birthday party I had for John. I served a casual buffet style menu. I put out a couple of spiral cut hams with side dishes that are a good compliment to ham like mac and cheese and baked beans, and I had breads of all sorts for those who preferred to make a sandwich. During the party Joey asked if I used ham bones to make split pea soup. He said his mother makes it for him because it’s one of his favorites. I told him I would make him and his mother some split pea soup with one of the leftover ham bones.

I put the ham bones in the freezer after the party, planning to make the soup when I got around to it.

That phrase is always a give away for what happened, isn’t it? When someone says “when I get around to it” don’t you just know it isn’t going to happen? Or at best it’s not going to happen any time soon. Such is the saga of Joey’s soup. Until now anyway.

Making comfort food for comfort

Joey has had a really tough year. Among other things, he lost his mother. They were very close. So as I was staring into the refrigerator looking at the Easter ham bone, trying to decide whether to trash it or freeze it, it occurred to me that this would be a good time to make Joey the split pea soup I had promised him. I was thinking that maybe having some homemade soup like his mom used to make for him, would bring him some comfort and fond memories of her. Once that thought popped into my mind, making the soup right now became priority number one. Even though I had other things planned for the day, instead I found myself in my kitchen making split pea soup on the hottest day of spring.

Is split pea soup food for the soul?

That night, I messaged Joey and told him I had finally made the split pea soup that I promised him so long ago, and asked him to stop over when he had a chance to pick some up to bring home.

He wrote back saying it was very nice of me to remember him, but he probably wasn’t going to be able to make it over. I found that strange. He only lives a couple of houses away. Why couldn’t he stop over some time in the next two or three days?

The next morning I was out doing errands. While I was heading home I decided that if I saw Joey’s truck in his driveway I was going to swing by my house, package up some soup, and bring it over to him. Going by I saw that he was home, so I made my delivery. When he came to the door he told me that he had lost yet another close family member during the night. He was by his loved one’s bedside when he got the message from me about the soup, and that was the reason he didn’t think he would have a chance to stop over.

Of course I was heartbroken for him. We had a short conversation about how loved ones never really leave you. There are those little things that happen from time to time, where you just know that a loved one is reaching out and touching your heart.

Truth is stranger than fiction

That night I was thinking how strange it was that it had taken me less than 24 hours from the time that I was gazing at that ham bone in the fridge wondering what to do with it, to the time I delivered split pea soup to Joey’s doorstep. That’s totally out of character for me. I am a procrastinator. I was wondering why making and delivering that soup had become almost an obsession.

As I was pondering why I felt so compelled, I recalled the conversation Joey and I had that afternoon about the subtle little signs we get to let us know that our lost loved ones are still with us. Then I thought 🤔 maybe it wasn’t “why” was I driven to do it, but by “who”. Could it be possible that Marie, Joey’s mom knew the emotional blow he was about to face, and she was desperate to send him a sign that she is never far away? Something to show him she would always be there to comfort him when he needed it?

Can a mother’s love conquer all?

Is it possible that one loving mom who can no longer be seen and heard, can reach out to the heart of another loving mom, and cause her to make her son’s favorite homemade soup? And deliver it to his doorstep on that very, very bad day that no one else knew was coming?

With that thought, I messaged Joey. I wrote: You may think I am nuts, but I think your mom used me to make split pea soup for you as a sign that she will always be there to comfort you. He wrote back that he didn’t think I was nuts. Stranger things have happened.

I leave it to you to believe it or not. But one thing is for sure. This batch of split pea soup had a secret ingredient. LOVE

Here’s what YOU WILL NEED:

About the ingredients

Liquid for soup base

As you can see on the list of ingredients, you can use 10 cups of water or, for a richer base you can use 4 cups of broth or stock and 6 cups of water. I use my own homemade stock for this recipe when I have some in my freezer.

We have a post about making your own poultry stock MAKING STOCK. It’s practically free to make and better than money can buy. It is very thick and rich. That is why I only use 4 cups of it in this recipe and make up the difference of 6 cups with water. If you are using broth or stock from the store, you can use as much or little as you want and add enough water to equal 10 cups. A boxed chicken broth can be used for the entire 10 cups of liquid if you want.

Cooking with wine

I know cooking with wine sounds fancy, but it really isn’t. It’s just another flavor you are adding, much like adding vanilla when making desserts. There is a reason why so many dishes found on restaurant menus are made with white wine. It makes a difference in the taste of a dish that is subtle but delicious.

I am no expert on using wine in cooking, but I have found that in some of my soups, stews and sauces, it tastes better if I add a splash of white wine. Actually, I most commonly use vermouth in place of white wine. Years ago I heard somewhere that a good substitute for dry white wine in cooking, is dry vermouth. I tried it and have used it ever since. I don’t know all that much about wines, so using dry vermouth as my “go to” works for me. Dry vermouth is relatively inexpensive, has a twist top cap, and can be stored in your kitchen cabinet for a long time.

Garlic

I am using jarred chopped garlic in this batch of soup. The garlic adds a little flavor to the soup, but it is not a major player in the taste, so the jarred is okay for this recipe. Always search out the equivalency to a clove of garlic on the label, when using jarred garlic. You can add more than you should otherwise.

This is WHAT TO DO:

Chop

Sauté

Use a large stock pot, or dutch oven to make the soup. Always use pots and pans with heavy bottoms. A heavy bottom helps prevent burning and distributes heat more evenly than pans with a thinner bottom. Warm up the pot on medium high heat and add enough olive oil to cover the bottom. Add the carrots, onion and celery to the pot. Sauté for about 5 minutes until the vegetables start getting tender. Then add the garlic, thyme (and wine if you are using it) and mix it in. Cook for another minute or so to blend the flavors.

Add the rest of the ingredients

Now that the vegetables are crisp tender we are going to add our ham bone, spit peas, cooking liquid and bay leaves, in that order. When you add the ham bone, push the vegetables aside and make a clear spot for the ham bone, so you are not crushing vegetables underneath it. Then pour the split peas around the ham bone, over the vegetables. Don’t stir the peas in. Add the water (or water and broth) to the pot and the 2 bay leaves.

It’s cooking time

Bring the soup to a boil, then cover the pot and bring the heat down to simmer. Let the soup simmer for 2 hours.

The final step

After 2 hours, most of the split peas have dissolved into the soup leaving it with it’s distinctive green appearance. There will be some peas that have remained whole. Remove the ham bone from the pot with tongs, shred the meat off the bone and put it back into the soup.

NOTE: Let the soup sit for at least 15 or 20 minutes before serving. Split pea soup continues to thicken as it sits. If you have some the next day you will probably need to water it down when you heat it up. It will be very thick after sitting in the refrigerator overnight. I think it’s even better the next day. There are many soups, stews and sauces that are better the next day.

Serve

Split pea soup is rich and delicious. It’s not a side dish, it is a whole meal in one bowl. Even those with the heartiest of appetites won’t walk away hungry.