Our traditional New Year's Eve dinner is generally a ham (or in the case of this year: pork roast). And once the meat is all gone the bone gets tossed in the soup pot with a ham hock and some split peas to make soup. The recipe is pretty simple and incredibly tasty. TF isn't generally much of a soup person and even he loves this soup.

Unfortunately I didn't write down my recipe the first year and I've forgotten exactly what I did. A bit of Googling turned up a similar-looking recipe, so I'm just using that as my base recipe this year. I have made a few adjustments though.

Since I usually cook up a bunch of bacon for the New Year's Eve stuffing, I decided to use some of the excess bacon grease to cook the veggies in instead of butter. I also reduced the liquid a bunch since cooking in the InstantPot means it's not losing anything to evaporation. If you're making this on the stove top you might find you need to add slightly more liquid to keep it a good consistency.

The last change I made was to add an extra 3/4 or so of split peas. I had initially gone with the recommended 1 3/4 c. but, even after reducing the broth and water by a cup each, the soup was still very thin. If it had been only slightly on the thin side, I would've just puréed a bit and stirred it back in to give it a little more body. But that wasn't going to be enough in this case. I tossed in all the peas I had left and put it back on to boil and then simmer. Hopefully that should be enough to thicken it up nicely. It smells absolutely delicious! It just wasn't nearly thick enough when I looked. If you like your pea soup flavourful but relatively thin, then feel free to go with the original 1 3/4 c. For stand-a-spoon-in-it thick soup, use at least 2 1/2 c. of split peas. (And maybe purée a bit once it's cooked as well.)

Update: So, I had previously recommended adding more split peas than the recipe called for because the soup was way too thin otherwise. But this year I had the opposite problem and found it was too thick. And that was even with the full 6 c. of liquid! So, I've walked that instruction back. If you're making this soup on the stovetop, I would recommend following the original instructions: 6 c. of liquid and 1 3/4 c. of split peas. If you're using an Instant pot, you may want to decrease the liquid, increase the split peas, or both.

Split Pea Soup

Slightly adapted from Seasons & Suppers

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp. bacon grease (or butter)
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 carrots, peeled and chopped
• 1 rib celery, chopped
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 tsp. dried thyme
• 1 tsp. dried savoury
• pepper, to taste
• ham bone(s)
• 1 smoked ham hock
• 1 3/4-2 c. yellow split peas
• 3 c. chicken broth
• 2-3 c. water

Directions

1. Heat bacon grease (or butter) over medium heat.
2. Add onion, carrots, and celery and cook until vegetables are softened.
3. Add bay leaf, savoury, thyme, and pepper and cook for another minute or so.
4. Cut the skin from the ham hock and add it along with the peas and any ham bones.
5. Stir in the chicken broth and water and bring to a boil.
6. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 1.5 hours checking periodically to see if it needs more water.
7. Remove the ham hock and bones.
8. Pick any meat from the bones/hock and return it to the pot. (Discard the bones.)
9. Season to taste and adjust consistency as desired. If you like a thicker soup, purée a cup or so and add it back to the pot. If you like thinner soup, add a bit more broth or water.
10. Serve with crusty bread.

InstantPot Diretions

1. Set InstantPot to medium-temperature Sauté and add bacon grease (or butter), onion, carrots, and celery and cook until vegetables are softened.
2. Add bay leaf, savoury, thyme, and pepper and cook for another minute or so.
3. Cut the skin from the ham hock and add it along with the peas and ham bone(s).
4. Stir in the broth and water and allow to boil.
5. Cancel Sauté, cover, and set to high-temperature Slow Cook for 2 hours.
6. Remove the ham hock and bones.
7. Pick any meat from the bones/hock and return it to the pot. (Discard the bones.)
8. Season to taste and purée some of the soup if desired.
9. Serve with crusty bread.