January’s always a bit of a weird time. The exciting kerfuffle of the holidays is over, and you’re left with short dark cold days, and lots of quiet time to think about the year ahead. I did quite a bit of reflecting on what I wanted to focus on this year, with our plans for the homestead and all, and in the midst of that I was also getting all my work prepared for opening up Creative Business School again (which I’m now accepting new students for, but will be closing enrollment again on the 4th). So basically, January flew right past me in a flurry, much like the intense rain storms our house has weathered these past few weeks.
I’m here now though, on the 1st of February, halfway between the winter solstice and the first day of spring, to share a little bit of cozy comfort food with you in the form of a green, hearty, and delightfully smokey soup. This is based on my grandpa’s recipe for split pea soup, and being a born and bred southern Indiana boy, he always cooked his with a smoked ham hock floating around in it. If you’re unfamiliar with a hock, it’s basically the knee/ankle joint of the pig. It’s usually smoked, and can be enjoyed as-is in all its fatty chewy smokey glory, but its true super power is its ability to make any liquid you boil it in taste wickedly good. In short, the best possible way to make split pea soup requires you to use a smoked ham hock. Or at least that’s how my grandpa felt about it.
If you don’t have one handy, you can chop up some bacon and throw it in there to still add a touch of that smokey flavor, but you’re missing out on all the richness from the cartilage of the hock itself breaking down, and the tender little bits of meat that come off of it and become at one with the muddled green stew. So I recommend trying to get one, if you can. To add some brightness to the mix, I really like stirring in frozen peas at the very end of cooking, so you still get little bursts of that bright, fresh spring-y flavor that fresh peas are packed with, plus the comforting heartiness of cooked up mushy split peas. And throwing some fresh thyme and parsley on top right before serving helps with this, too.
And while I didn’t put up a new post in January, I did re-test and update this absolutely delicious avgolemono soup recipe from the archives, so if you want to keep the soup train a-moving I’ve got you covered on that front. Wishing you all a very wonderful 2021, and I’ll be back again soon with a little lime tart to help you enjoy winter citrus season to its fullest! 🙂
Split Pea Soup with Smoked Ham Hock
Ingredients
Split Pea Soup with Smoked Ham Hock
- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1 large yellow onion chopped
- 10 cloves of garlic minced
- 1 pound carrots peeled and cut into 1/2-inch thick slices
- 3 stalks of celery cut into 1/2-inch thick slices
- 4 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 smoked ham hock or shank
- 1 pound dried split peas rinsed
- 7 cups chicken turkey, or vegetable stock
- 1 cup fresh or frozen shelled peas
- 2 tablespoons fresh parsley leaves
- Kosher salt
- Freshly cracked black pepper
- 2 tablespoons toasted pumpkin seeds optional
- Bread for serving alongside
Seared Shallots
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 4 shallots, cut in half lengthwise
Instructions
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Heat the olive oil in large pot over medium low heat. Add the onions and raise the heat to medium, then sauté until softened and translucent and some pieces turn lightly golden around the edges, about 10 to 15 minutes, stirring every 4 minutes or so. Add the garlic and stir to incorporate and cook for another 5 minutes. Add the carrot, celery, 2 teaspoons of the thyme, and the bay leaf and stir to combine. Allow to cook for another 10 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes or so.
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Nestle the ham hock in the vegetable mixture, then add the split peas and the broth and reduce heat to low. Cover the pot and allow to cook until the split peas have mostly disintegrated into the soup mixture, about 1 hour to 1 hour 20 minutes, stirring every 15 to 20 minutes.
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During the last 30 minutes of soup simmering, you can prepare the seared shallots. Heat the oil in a cast iron skillet over medium heat. Add the shallots, cut-side facing down, and cook until lightly golden and fragrant on each side. Remove from heat and set aside.
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Remove the ham hock from the soup and place it on a wooden cutting board. Remove any meat pieces from the hock and chop the meat into roughly 1/2-wide cubes.
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Stir the pieces of meat into the soup, remove the pot from heat, and immediately stir in the fresh or frozen peas, the remaining 2 teaspoons of thyme, and the parsley. Taste and add salt and pepper to your liking. Serve with the toasted pumpkin seeds and seared shallots on top and some good bread on the side for dipping.
This soup looks very tasty and the bread looks delicious. Have you heard of any green/positive changes the President has made yet? I really hope he manages to pull this thing off and the media don’t tear him apart.
I love split pea soup. Will give yours a try. We are big on beans and ham hock as the center of the flavor. I ind them in the frozen meat section at Fred Meyer, not in the fresh but of meats. We use our slow cooker Instapot, but oven is perfect. Glad you posted this recipe. Thx
Isn’t it so warming and delicious? The flavor of the ham hock is so wonderful. I hope you enjoy the recipe!
wow that looks so yummie. also the photos are simply unreal. well done!
i’m learning a lot from your way of presenting the goods. please have a look at my cooking channel on youtube. perhaps you can give me some feedback on how to upgrade the videos? thanks a lot and all the best, may the chefs unite and stand together for a world with ymmie foods for everyone.
please see https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4d421MyBS1IVDZTMjPsbDA?view_as=subscriber
Wow… it’s awesome soup! Love pea soup – I use smoked bacon instead of ham and it’s so good.
Hello!
Just wanted to let you know that my wife and I tried this recipe the other night. It so happens that my inlaws were there too. They like the recipe so much that they ask for the leftovers to go!
Anyways, thanks a lot for sharing this. Excited to send the next recipe here to my wife.
Have a great day!
Awwww that makes me so happy to hear Timothy!! So glad that you and the inlaws enjoyed it!!! 🙂
Delicious and easy! The frozen peas and parsley at the end give it a touch of fresh sweetness. I’ll definitely make this again.
We love the different textures in this soup from the celery, carrots, fresh peas and shallots, which made this soup so perfect! The Thyme really popped as a final topping alongside the shallots too. We will definitely be making this again. Thank you!
Good Day.
When you say “nestle the ham hock in the vegetable mixture”, is this with the skin removed first?
If not, is there a lot of fat to skim off at some point?
My mom used to make ham and pea soup when I was a boy in England, c 1955, but I never knew how she actually prepared it.
Thank you. This seems like a great recipe.
Hi Richard! If there is skin on the ham hock you can leave it on. Adding that depending on the source, typically the butcher has removed any hair from the skin before smoking it. But if there *is* hair there, then I would remove the skin first. But it’s pretty standard for butchers to remove all the hair from any pig skin before preparing it. So you should be fine with the skin in there and everything 🙂
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