I created this recipe when I did not have a ham bone laying around and was really needing some good split pea soup. Serve a hot bowl of this soup with a nice crusty bread of your choice. I did not add any salt to this recipe due to the ham, but you can add salt as needed.
Ingredients
- bag green split peas, rinsed: 1 piece (14 ounce)
- olive oil: 2 Tbsp
- ½ cups finely chopped onion: 1 piece
- ½ cups finely chopped carrots: 1 piece
- celery: 1 cup (finely chopped)
- garlic: 1 tsp (to taste, minced)
- chicken broth: 7 cups (or more if needed, divided)
- bay leaf: 1 piece (to taste)
- black pepper: 0.5 tsp (freshly ground)
- ground thyme: 0.25 tsp
- smoked pork neck bones (such as Smithfield®): 2 pound
- ounces cubed smoked ham (such as Carolina Pride®): 10 piece
Metric Conversion
Stages of cooking
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Place the split peas into a large container and cover with several inches of cool water; let stand for at least 3 hours. Rinse peas until the water runs clear; drain.
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Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Saute onion, carrots, and celery in hot oil until soft, 8 to 12 minutes. Add garlic and saute until fragrant, about 1 minute.
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Combine peas, onion mixture, 6 cups chicken broth, bay leaf, black pepper, and thyme together in a large pot. Stir neck bones into chicken broth mixture, adding more chicken broth as necessary to cover bones completely. Bring mixture to a boil, reduce heat to medium-low, cover the pot, and simmer until peas have dissolved and meat is falling from the bones, 2 to 3 hours. Transfer bones to a plate to cool.
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Stir cubed ham into soup. When neck bones are cool enough to handle, remove remaining meat from the bones; discard bones and stir meat into soup. Continue to simmer until ham and meat are heated through, about 5 minutes.
