Instant Pot Split Pea Soup

Instant Pot Split Pea Soup with Ham. Soup as thick as a fog from dried split peas. Ready in about an hour, thanks to pressure cooking.

Jump to:

• What Are Split Peas?
• Ingredient Notes
• Tips for Success
• Pea Soup Fog Trivia
• Instant Pot Split Pea Soup Recipe
• What do you think?
• Related Posts
• 💬 Comments

Ham and peas are a classic combination. I love them together, and any leftover holiday ham is my excuse to make this soup.
Pork and peas are a perfect pair, so I add pork in two different ways. A smoked pork hock gives up its flavor to the peas, and cubed ham adds meaty bites to the soup.

What Are Split Peas?

Split peas are the same green peas you get in the frozen vegetable aisle of your grocery store. They're just processed differently. Split peas are peeled and dried peas, and the split occurs naturally. Peas are two separate pieces inside their skin, so when the dried peas are peeled, they split in two.

Ingredient Notes

Is the pork hock absolutely necessary?

No, but it does add a nice smoky flavor to the soup. The ham adds to that flavor, so you can skip the ham hock and the soup will still turn out great.

What about the ham? Is it necessary?

No, you don't need ham. If you still want meat in your soup, cubed cooked chicken or pork can replace the ham. You can also skip it entirely—but then we're talking vegetarian, so read the next note.

How do I make this vegetarian or vegan?

To make it vegetarian, skip the pork and ham. To make it vegan, use olive oil or vegetable oil instead of butter. In both cases, I would recommend using vegetable broth instead of water to add some of the extra depth the pork adds to the dish. (Make some Instant Pot Vegetable Broth and freeze the leftovers - you will thank me later).

Broth instead of water

The basic recipe is a simple soup, but to make it even better, replace the water with chicken broth. Try my Instant Pot Chicken Broth or Instant Pot Ham Broth. If you use store-bought broth, skip the salt in the recipe because store-bought broth has a lot of sodium.

Tips for Success

Quick release for a thicker soup

Thanks to a tip from J. Kenji Lopez-Alt, I can make Instant Pot split pea soup as thick as any fog.
That tip? Make sure to quick release the pressure. Water under pressure is superheated at about 240°F in an Instant Pot. Releasing the pressure starts a vigorous boil inside the pot, roughing up the peas and releasing their starch into the soup. My pea soups used to be a little watery; now, I can practically stand a spoon in them. (Not really, but you know what I mean.)

Pressure Release and Spitting Starch

Now, there is one downside to the quick release - sometimes your Instant Pot will start spraying starch out through the quick release valve. If this happens, close the valve (carefully! the steam is hot!), and wait five minutes for the pot to cool down. Try releasing the pressure again at this point, and if it still spits starch, repeat trying every five minutes.

Don't go over the half-full line on your pot when cooking split peas

Peas tend to foam up and can block the pressure valves, which could be bad news. There's a reason everyone has a family story about grandma's pressure cooker exploding and spraying pea soup all over the kitchen…and it starts with an overfilled pressure cooker.

Sauté vegetables for extra depth

I sauté my vegetables - a mix of onion, celery, carrot, and garlic - to add a sweet undertone to the bowl. Don't skip the sauté step - the soup will be bland without it. (I mean, if you're really in a hurry, you can just dump everything into the pot - but it is much better with the sauté step.)

Doubling or halving the recipe

This recipe is sized for a 6-quart pressure cooker right up to the half-full line. Halving the recipe is fine, but don't increase the ingredients unless you have a larger cooker. The recipe can be halved if you want to cook it in a 3-quart pressure cooker.

Pea Soup Fog Trivia

It turns out that a "pea soup fog" is bad news. Reading about the London Pea Soup Fog of 1952 took me down a Wikipedia rabbit hole…focus! Back to the soup!)

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What do you think?

Questions? Other ideas? Leave them in the comments section below.

Related Posts

For some other bean soups, try my Pressure Cooker Senate Bean Soup, Pressure Cooker Bean Mix Soup, or Pressure Cooker Black-Eyed Peas. If you're looking for other ways to use up ham, try my Instant Pot Turnip Greens Recipe, Instant Pot Ham and Beans, or Instant Pot Ham Broth.
Looking for something else? Here is my Instant Pot (Pressure Cooker) Recipes Index.

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