This Split Pea and Ham Soup with potatoes, is the very essence of comfort food. It has all the elements a split pea soup should have, it’s hearty, nourishing and delicious.
Smoked ham shanks flavor this split pea soup and provide some meatiness for it. Carrots and onions also provide flavor while the potatoes thicken the soup. This Split Pea and Ham soup will stick to your ribs!
This is an Instant Pot Split Pea Soup recipe. It comes together in 3 stages, all of them using the Instant Pot.
Ingredients
- Raw Green split peas. Split peas are field peas, grown with the sole purpose of drying them. They become split peas, when they are divided in half along the natural seam. This process means faster cooking and no pre soaking.
- Onion.
- Carrots.
- Potatoes
- Smoked ham shank pieces.
Instructions
This Split Pea Soup recipe, made in the Instant Pot, breaks down into 3 stages.
First of all, put the smoked ham shanks into the Instant Pot. Add the water, put the glass lid on and set the Instant Pot to Soup /Broth button for 4 hours.
After 4 hours, allow ham broth to cool, then remove the ham shanks. Place them in a sealed food container for storage. Pour the broth into a large (32oz) mason jar. Store the broth and the ham shanks in the refrigerator overnight.
Second of all, peel and chop the potatoes, carrots and onions.
Take the broth out of the refrigerator. Remove the ‘disc’ of hard white fat (this solidified as the broth cooled,) and place it in the Instant Pot. Push the Sauté button. As the fat heats up, add the onion and sauté for 5 minutes. Then add the carrots and potatoes.
Then add the ham broth and rinsed split peas to the Instant Pot and adjust the setting from Sauté to Slow Cooker. Cook for 45 minutes.
Lastly, as the Split Green Peas have been cooking in the ham broth, take the ham shanks out of the refrigerator and remove the meat fibers. Discard any gristle, bones and skin.
Add the shredded ham to the soup and continue on with the Slow Cooker setting for another 15 minutes.
No need to puree, the peas will be soft and a little mushy (in a good way!)
Serve immediately.
Flexibility
- Another type of dehydrated pea or bean can be used instead of green split peas. The best alternative are lentils. When substituting another pea or bean, please check its soaking and cooking requirements.
- Fresh garlic and shallots can be used, really anything in the onion family (leeks, chives etc.), even dried onion. Adding onion to this soup, adds flavor. Sautéing them first in the ham fat caramelizes the onion and provides even more flavor.
- Carrots can be omitted but including them provide color, flavor and a little sweetness.
- Celery is often added, again to enhance flavor.
- Potatoes can be omitted too, but again like the carrots, they provide the soup with another color rather than it being completely green. Potatoes will also thicken it, making it more hearty. It you want to include potatoes but not have a thick soup, add more water when making the ham broth or add chicken stock to the finished soup.
- Smoked ham shank pieces are the front and center of this soup. Use a ham bone if desired, but this will not provide much if any meat. Do not use unsmoked ham shank pieces or bone. The result will be a soup that has a ‘swiney’ flavor. Take it from personal experience – it is revolting!
- I used the fat that was a by product when making the ham broth. Doing this intensifies the smokey flavor, however olive oil can be used instead.
As always, when deviating from any recipe, the yield, method of cooking, presentation, and nutritive value will change.
Storage
I love storing any leftover soup in mason jars with firm fitting lids. This works well for refrigeration. Jars of soup can be refrigerated for up to 3 days.
If freezing this soup, I like to double bag it with freezer bags and lay it flat to freeze. Then when frozen, I store it vertically, along with my other vertically stored soups and broths.
A Tip From Me
Instant Pots are so useful! It is estimated that 1 in 3 households have one. They are very versatile, but one thing to consider when using them or similar small appliance like a slow cooker is where to place them when in use. I have set mine on my counter top, only to have the wooden bottom surface of my overhead cabinets become warped. Instant Pots and slow cookers should be placed in an unobstructed space with no overhead cabinets. I now set mine on the store top. Lesson learned.
Additional slow cooker recipes include:
Equipment
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Got Questions?
I’ve got answers – hopefully!
- I made this soup, it’s very thick, what its the best way to make it thinner? Adding vegetable or chicken stock. Failing that – water.
- Can you overcook this soup? Some say no, I say yes. If the soup is cooked or held warm for too long, the peas and vegetables turn to complete mush. I like seeing the individual vegetables in the soup.
- I made the ham broth the day before as instructed. When I added it to the peas, it was thick and gloopy – why? The ham broth is a typical bone broth, it’s full of collagen. This came from the cartilage and actual bones in the ham shank. It will look like colored soft gelatin. It is full of nutrients!
- Can I make this soup in 1 step instead of dividing this over 2 days? Yes, the flavor will be similar but not as good as the 2 day recipe. Making the ham broth on the first day enables you to collect the fat needed for the second day. Using this fat to sauté the vegetables in adds another dimension of flavor.
- Why not make it with a ham bone? A ham bone can be used. They are almost impossible to get at a grocery store and not every town has a butcher shop in it. Also ham bones do not have the meat a ham shank provides.
Split Pea and Ham Soup
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 lbs smoked ham shanks
- 1 lb dried green split peas
- 1 onion small
- 6 oz potatoes about 2 small potatoes
- 4 oz carrots about 3 small carrots
- 3 pints water
Instructions
- Put the smoked ham shanks into the Instant Pot. Add the water, put the glass lid on and set the Instant Pot to Soup /Broth button for 4 hours.
- After 4 hours, allow ham broth to cool, then remove the ham shanks. Place them in a sealed food container for storage. Pour the broth into a large (32oz) mason jar. Store the broth and the ham shanks in the refrigerator overnight.
- Peel and chop the potatoes, carrots and onions.
- Take the broth out of the refrigerator. Remove the 'disc' of hard white fat (this solidified as the broth cooled,) and place it in the Instant Pot. Push the Sauté button. As the fat heats up, add the onion and sauté for 5 minutes. Then add the carrots and potatoes.
- Add the ham broth and rinsed split peas to the Instant Pot and adjust the setting from Sauté to Slow Cooker. Cook for 45 minutes.
- Take the ham shanks out of the refrigerator and remove the meat fibers. Discard any gristle, bones and skin.
- Add the shredded ham to the soup and continue on with the Slow Cooker setting for another 15 minutes.
- No need to puree. Serve immediately.
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