I’ve mentioned a time or two that I was a little girl when my mom died, so I really don’t have as many food-related memories of her as I would like to. I can’t pinpoint a specific memory that I have of my mom and split pea soup like I can with my dad and his doctored-up Campbell’s Bean with Bacon Soup and toast on Sunday nights or Chicken Cacciatore in the Dutch oven or cinnamon rolls and egg casserole on Christmas morning. But somewhere in the back of my brain, I know that Split Pea Soup with Ham is somehow linked to my mom and that those are good memories. I usually end up making this a few times a year after some ham-related festivity because I have to start getting really creative in thinking up ways to use up all the leftover ham. However, my kids have also decided that in spite of the visual evidence to the contrary (my son says it “looks like swamp”), they all love it and are more than happy to eat it up when I make it. In fact, my son has asked for it for his birthday on more than one occasion. And since it also happens to be super healthy–full of protein, fiber, and good carbs!
Ingredients Needed
Dried split peas – Find these in your grocery store near dried beans, lentils, etc. Chicken or vegetable broth – Canned or reconstituted from bouillon or soup base Bone-in ham, diced – Ideally, you can use a ham bone leftover from some hammy large dinner, but you don’t want to use said ham bone if it the ham was seasoned with stuff like brown sugar, cloves, etc.–that’ll add a weird flavor to your soup. I like to get a bone-in ham steak from the grocery store. You can also buy ham pieces sold at the grocery store close to the regular hams. Don’t be scared, it’s just pieces of ham that have fallen off while a ham was being spiral-cut, so you still get that spiral ham, it’s just in smaller pieces and quantities and perfect for cutting up and using in soup. Aside from the spiced, sweet hams, the ones you want to stay away from are the super-lean cubes of ham (not enough flavor) or lunch meat (it will fall apart). Carrots Onion Fresh garlic Italian seasoning Marjoram Smoked paprika Dried thyme Bay leaf Malt vinegar – You’ll need a tiny bit of malt vinegar which ends up being the secret ingredient; my soup kept feeling like it just needed more depth and I found the malt vinegar in the back of my cupboard and it just made the flavors pop.
How to Make Split Pea Soup
