Pea and ham soup

mrssnowy_2

Had a ham hock reduced to 75 p from £1.60 in MrM last week,made into pea soup in the slow cooker.Great as it saves me burning the saucepan,boiling the peas dry or boiling over and fixing to the top of the cooker.Yes,you should be able to slice it when cold !
Enough for 2 bowls each (DH and me)and 4 portions frozen!
mrss

shjo558

I am roasting one of those huge gammon joints for our Xmas Eve dinner - DH working on Xmas day so it will really be our main Xmas meal.

I quite fancy making pea soup as I believe that will go really well with the ham and I'm after a fool proof recipe and advice on how to use/make ham stock too. I have bought a packet of yellow split peas and am now at a bit of a loss for how to transform it into soup:o.

I'm a bit hopeless in the kitchen and DH will probably assume that this will turn into another one of my cooking disaters so hopefully, fingers crossed, this will be a nice surprise;)

missychrissy

Soak your split peas overnight. I pour boiling water over them in a bowl and then place a plate on top.

I usually do a ham or gammon joint in slow cooker with split peas and chopped onion these days. However, when I was a stay at home mum I did them in a pressure cooker. Alternatively, cook them on the hob with any left over gammon and a chopped onion added.

foxgloves

I make this quite a lot, but I don't use a recipe. How I do it is to chop some veggies finely.....I use onions, a bit of garlic, red peppers, celery, carrots, to be honest, whatever I've got handy. Then I put a tblspn of olive oil in a large pan & cook the veg till it's softening, but not browning. Then I add yellow split peas, turn them in the oil & veggies to coat, then chuck in a bayleaf and pour in the ham stock. If you have any tiny scraps of ham left, cut them up small too and chuck in. Bring to boil, cover & simmer until yellow split peas are soft. Then, I take it off the heat & liquidise about half of it before adding it back to the pan, so that way, you get some texture but the blended half thickens the soup. Then taste & add salt & pepper. What I also sometimes do (Nigel Slater's suggestion) is if I've finished a piece of Parmesan cheese, I keep the rind in foil in the fridge....you can't eat it but if you chuck it in ham & yellow split pea soup while it's cooking, it adds to the flavour....remember to fish it out at the end before liquidising. I really like this soup and when I buy ham hocks (only about £2.50 each in local butchers around here), I always save the stock from cooking and any little scraps of ham to make it. Hope this is helpful x

valk_scot

I'm just about to make split pea soup today. I don't soak mine, just give them a rinse in a sieve under the tap. Then I saute off one finely chopped onion, chuck in the split peas and stock, bring to the boil and simmer till done. My family like diced carrots in split pea soup (I hate em!) so I put a couple of diced carrots in an hour before I think it's done.

Bear in mind that a 500g pack of split peas makes a lot of soup, or a lesser amount of almost solid pea porridge! So depending on how much soup you want and how big the pot is, watch your quantities and keep topping up with stock. If it gets really thick, split it between two pots.

As to stock, use the water you've boiled the ham in. This coupd be pretty salty, which is okay with very bland things like split peas, but hold off adding extra salt or stock cube till nearly done and you've tasted it.

Add a few shredded ham scraps at the end.

Above all, don't fret too much about the "correct" recipe. Split Pea Soup is one of these recipes that you sort of make up as you go along, adding a little more or less as required.

missychrissy

I'm from the North East and grew up with Ham and pease pudding. If you add less water to your yellow split pea 'soup' you get a lovely pease pudding - good in sandwiches.

Paulie'sGirl

I make ham and pea soup after cooking a ham hock, but the liquid you've poached the joint in will be fab too. Below is my Grandma's recipe, which I think was her grandma's too!

I take the meat out, grate 4 carrots coarsely (box grater or food processor) and add 500g - 600g of split peas. I simmer slowly until it thickens. It does this by itself, and can happen quickly, so keep an eye on it from time to time. This is for about 2.5 - 3l of stock. You can adjust the viscosity according to taste by adding a touch of water at the end. I also throw in scraps of meat from carving up the joint, gives a nice texture and makes it seem more substantial.


Hope that helps!

PGxx

karren

Ive some left over ham i the freezer and fancy making pea and ham soup, what else do i need?????
Ive chicken stock and onion, are fresh peas or dried peas best?
Ta
karren

Welsh_Totster

I have no idea, but I just wanted to say I love pea and ham soup, but have yet to make my own. Yumm!

Pink.

Hi karren,

I normally use the bone from gammon to make stock and then add split peas to make pea and ham soup, but chicken stock and dried peas will work just as well.

There's an earlier thread with lots of recipes and advice that should help so I've added your thread to it to keep the recipes together.

Pink