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Thanks to a tip from J. Kenji Lopez-Alt, I can make Instant Pot split pea soup as thick as any fog.1
That tip? Make sure to quick release the pressure. The pressure release starts a vigorous boil inside the pot, boiling, 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.)
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. I also 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.
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Instant Pot Split Pea Soup with Ham
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 8 bowls of soup 1x
Description
Instant Pot Split Pea Soup with Ham. Soup as thick as a fog, from dried split peas, in about an hour thanks to pressure cooking!
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 large onion, minced
- 1 celery rib, minced
- 1 large carrot, peeled and cut into ½ inch slices (or 4 ounces pre-sliced carrots)
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 pound green split peas, sorted and rinsed
- 1 medium pork hock (about 1 pound)
- 8 ounces cubed ham
- 6 cups water
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
Instructions
- Sauté the aromatics and cubed ham: Set the Instant Pot to Sauté mode adjusted to high (medium-high heat in another pressure cooker), add the butter, and wait for the butter to melt and stop foaming, about 3 minutes. Add the onion, celery, carrots, garlic, and cubed ham to the pot, and then sprinkle with the dried thyme and ½ teaspoon of salt. Sauté until the onion softens, about 5 minutes.
- Add peas, hock, and water to the pot: Add the split peas to the pot, nestle the smoked ham hock in the peas, pour in the water, and stir in another ½ teaspoon of salt.
- Pressure cook the soup for 18 minutes with a quick pressure release: Lock the lid on the pot and pressure cook for at high pressure for 18 minutes (Manual or Pressure Cooking setting in an Instant Pot), or 15 minutes in a stovetop PC. When the cooking time is over, quick release the pressure. If the quick-released steam starts spitting, close the quick release valve and let the pressure come down naturally for a few minutes before starting the quick release again. Remove the lid, tilting it away from you to avoid the scalding hot steam.
- Season and serve: Fish the pork hock out of the pot and discard - it gave up its flavor to the soup. Stir in the fresh ground black pepper, serve, and enjoy!.
Equipment
Buy Now → Notes
Don’t go over the half-full line on your pot when cooking split peas. They 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.
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.
Tools
6 quart or larger pressure cooker (I love my Instant Pot electric pressure cooker)
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 45 minutes
- Category: Weeknight Dinner
- Method: Pressure Cooker
- Cuisine: American
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What do you think?
Questions? Other ideas? Leave them in the comments section below.
Related Posts
Pressure Cooker Senate Bean Soup
Pressure Cooker Bean Mix Soup
Pressure Cooker Black-Eyed Peas
My other Pressure Cooker Recipes
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- Turns out, 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! ↩︎
Mary McK. says
I knew I could count on you for anything leguminous! I made this as written a few weeks ago. It has a great flavor but I wasn’t a fan of how thick it was. I have great respect for you and for “Kenj-dog” as my kids say, but I wanted a split pea soup with more pea discreteness so tonight I made it as in the recipe but set the IP for 10 minutes instead of 18 (also quadrupled the carrots and used an 8-qt IP just to be safe). Liked it much better in texture although by the time I made it through my bowl it was super thick again. Maybe I should stick with lentil soup.
What is your favorite way to grind pepper? I didn’t measure, just ground until my hands were too tired to go on, but should have ground over a custard cup to see what was actually happening. An electric grinder maybe??
Mike Vrobel says
Thanks! I grind pepper with a pepper mill, the old fashioned way. I have a couple different ones I use, but the one reach for most is the Kuhn Rikon vase grinder https://amzn.to/4a4B027.
Mary McK. says
Thank you for the link - interesting window on capitalism: the white one is more expensive and apparently more popular judging by its greater scarcity. I wonder if it’s popular because it’s more expensive or the other way around. Either way: outrage! I did discover by grinding the pepper into a custard cup and then measuring that it wasn’t as onerous as I had thought.
I made this soup yet again and added more water for a total of 8 cups, still with a pound of carrots and 10 minutes at pressure and it’s now close to perfect. I might try 8 minutes next time. You probably wouldn’t like it this way but I’m pretty happy. Thank you!
Mike Vrobel says
You're welcome, glad you enjoy it!
Janet says
Really enjoyed the soup Mike, thanks for another great recipe.
Mike Vrobel says
You're welcome!
Fleur says
Love your recipes. Think maybe you were doing a bit of copying and pasting? Step 2... I was wondering where the beans were in the list of ingredients!! 🙂
Mike Vrobel says
You're right - cut and paste will be the death of me. Thanks!
M & P Richardson says
Three things my husband said after tasting your soup:
This is the best split pea soup I've ever had.
I can't believe how good it is!
I could it this all day.
Thanks for the recipe!!
Mike Vrobel says
You’re welcome!
Amy says
I made this soup today. It's delicious, much better than versions I've made before in a crock pot.
I really enjoy your site. Going to try making a cheesecake next...
Thanks!
Jane says
Cheesecake recipes are great too!
Mike Vrobel says
Thanks!
John O. says
I'm going to try this and try it a second time with whole yellow peas. Thanks for being there. I appreciate you.
Mike Vrobel says
Thank you!