Pressure Cooker Split Pea Soup with Ham

Pressure Cooker Split Pea Soup with Ham is super easy to make and takes about 40 minutes from start to finish, and that includes the prep work!

You can make this ham and split pea soup with or without a ham bone and with or without ham stock. You can also skip the ham and make it vegetarian!

If someone would have told me a month ago that I would have a recipe for Split Pea soup with ham, I would have laughed and said, "not likely." This is because I have never been able to tolerate the texture for some reason. I like all the ingredients, but there is something about the texture of the soup that is not at all pleasing to me. So, why do I have a recipe now? Because I fixed the texture problems, added an extra ingredient not usually found in split pea soup, and this version of Pressure Cooker Split Pea Soup with Ham is absolutely delicious! 

If you are like me and don't love the texture of a pureed ham and split pea soup, then this will be your go-to recipe! 

Suggested Kitchen Tools for Split Pea Soup

• Electric Pressure Cooker (you will need a 6 qt or larger to do a full batch)
• Large spoon for stirring
• (affiliate link)Fine Mesh Sieve for rinsing and sorting the beans

Ingredients & Substitutions

Ham and Split Pea soup uses simple ingredients and is perfect for using up leftover ham!

Dried Split Peas

Split peas are dried peas that have been split and you can use either green split peas or yellow split peas in this recipe.

I used green split peas in this recipe because I like the slightly sweet flavor of green peas. Yellow split peas have a more earthy flavor and they cook in the same time as the green variety so feel free to use whichever kind you like or have on hand.

There will be a color difference in the soup and a slight flavor difference when using yellow peas. The directions and cooking time will stay the same no matter which type of pea you use. 

Ham & Bacon

You can use any kind of ham that you have leftover or, if you want to make a batch of soup and don't have leftover ham, pick up a ham steak or two and chop it up to add to the soup. In the US, the ham we find in the grocery stores is fully cooked, so you do not need to cook the ham before adding it to the soup. If you live in a different country where the ham is uncooked, you can add it to the soup raw as long as you cut it into about 1" cubes (or smaller) so it cooks fully in the 10-minute pressure cook time. 

If you have leftover ham, definitely use that! I have found that it doesn't really matter how the ham was prepared, it's still delicious in the soup. I used a sugar crusted honey baked ham in my split pea soup and, surprisingly, it was not too sweet. You can use as little or as much ham as you want. In this recipe, I used 3 cups of ham that I chopped into large cubes (for texture), but you can use less or more ham and you can chop it smaller if you like. It will not affect the recipe at all. 

If you have a leftover ham bone, you can certainly throw it in, but I tried it both ways and didn't find that the bone added any additional flavor in the short pressure cooking time. To boost the ham flavor, I recommend using the ham bone to make homemade broth and then using the ham stock in place of the chicken broth in this recipe. You can also use a smoked ham hock, but I'm not sure how much flavor will be extracted in the short cooking time. 

One of the changes I made to this ham and split pea soup is to add (affiliate link)peppercorn thick-cut bacon and it is amazing! I chopped it up into about 1-2" pieces and sauteed it for just a few minutes. The bacon does not get crispy so if you don't want to keep it in the soup when serving, just put the whole bacon slices into the soup and then remove them after pressure cooking. The flavor will infuse, but you won't have the pieces of soft bacon.

Usually, I am not a fan of soft bacon, but I really liked it in this soup! If you want to skip the bacon, but add a little smokey flavor, try using a small amount of liquid smoke instead. 

If you can't find the peppercorn bacon, you can use any bacon you like and add about ½ teaspoon of black pepper to the seasoning mix.

Vegetables

I used a combination of carrots, celery, and onion in this recipe, but you can use whatever vegetables you like and omit what you don't like.

I always have sweet onions on hand so that is what I used, but a white or yellow onion will work just fine.

In order to keep some texture in the soup, I like to cut the vegetables fairly large; about 1½-2" chunks. This is completely up to you and how you like your split pea and ham soup. If you want a smoother soup without chunks of veggies, cut them small and they will disappear into the soup as it pressure cookes.

Seasonings & Liquid

The seasonings in this recipe are very simple; salt, dry thyme leaves, and bay leaves. I didn't add pepper because I used the peppercorn bacon, but if you are skipping that I would add ½ teaspoon of black pepper.

I use a combination of white wine (Cupcake Reisling is exactly what I used) and chicken stock (or broth) in the soup. I found the white wine to be a key ingredient in cutting through the richness of the soup and giving it that acid component that I think most ham and split pea soups are lacking.

You can certainly skip the wine and add in about 1 Tablespoon of white wine vinegar or white vinegar.

I am not sure how the soup would be if you used red wine. While red wine would provide the necessary acid to balance the soup it would change the color and possibly the flavor. If you can, stick with white wine or white wine vinegar.

As far as the chicken stock (or broth) goes, you can certainly replace that with ham stock or even vegetable broth if you are omitting the meat for a plant-based version.

Tips for Making Ham and Split Pea Soup

• If you want a very smooth soup, use an immersion blender after pressure cooking to blend it.
• Always wash the dried peas, they often times have little stones or twigs that you don't want in your soup.
• Don't be tempted to use less liquid or your soup will end up like sludge and could trigger the water notice.
• Don't try to make a double batch in a pressure cooker unless you have one that is 10 qts or larger.

How to Make Homemade Split Pea Soup with Ham

In this recipe I use an electric pressure cooker because you can get the soup done in a fraction of the time as compared to using a slow cooker, crock pot, or stove top and the flavors are amazing!

I will say that if you want to really extract the flavors from the ham bone, slow cooking may be a better cooking method. Or, you could add the bacon, ham bone, liquid and seasonings and then pressure cook for 30-60 minutes before adding in the rest of the ingredients. 

I didn't use a ham bone in this recipe and it turned out perfectly!

Mise En Place (prep)

• Rinse and remove any debris from the split peas
• Cut the onion, carrots, and celery into large chunks
• Chop the bacon into 1" pieces or leave whole if you want to remove the bacon at the end
• Measure out the seasonings and liquid ingredients

Sauté the Bacon & Vegetables

Turn the Ninja Foodi or Instant Pot on and select the sauté function. Set it to high and add in the butter, or you can use olive oil or skip this if you are using bacon.

I prefer to use both the butter and bacon because the butter gets the bacon rendering a little quicker and butter makes everything better!

Once the butter has melted and the bacon starts to render out its fat, add in the vegetables and the seasonings. Give everything a good stir.

You don't have to sauté the vegetables very long and the goal is not to get them brown or tender, so I usually just let them cook just a few minutes before adding the rest of the ingredients.

Deglazing the Pot

Prior to going under pressure after you have used the sauté function it is important to deglaze the pot. Deglazing will remove anything that has stuck on the bottom of the pot that could trigger the water notice.

In this recipe I use the white wine, but if you are skipping the wine, then use ½ cup of the chicken broth or whatever broth/stock you are using.

Pour the wine into the pot and then scrape the bottom of the pot to loosen anything that may be stuck.

Add in the cubed ham and stir everything around.

Add the split peas and give the ingredients a stir. Sometimes after rinsing the dried split peas they clump, make sure they are not in one large clump in your soup or they may not cook correctly. Break them up with your hands before adding to the pot or use a spoon to break them up and stir them into the rest of the ingredients.

Add in the chicken stock and stir one last time before going under pressure.

Pressure Cooking

After adding the all of the ingredients, put the pressure lid on and make sure the valve is to the sealed position. Select the pressure cook function and select high pressure. Set the time for 10 minutes and hit start.

After the 10 minutes of pressure cooking is done, allow the pot to naturally release for 10 minutes. This means you do nothing and just let the pot cool down on its own and the steam that has put the pot under pressure will revert back to liquid form. After 10 minutes, move the valve to the venting position to release any remaining pressure.

Don't freak out that the soup looks liquidy; it thickens up!

Remove the bay leaves if you can find them and give the soup a good stir. The peas will be on the bottom of the pot so you want to stir those into the liquid.

Let the soup sit for about 5-10 minutes before serving. This allows it to thicken even more.

Add in the leafy greens from the inner part of the celery if desired and stir.

Serve & Enjoy!

Storage & Reheating Instructions

How to Store Leftover Split Pea Soup

Refrigeration

Refrigerate any leftovers within 2 hours. I like to portion out the soup into smaller containers so it cools faster in the fridge.

You can store the ham soup in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.

Freezer

You can store split pea and ham soup in the freezer and it will maintain it's quality for up to 6 months when packaged correctly.

Before freezing it is very important that the soup is cold, so I recommend refrigerating the leftovers overnight before freezing them.

If the food is warm when packaged for freezing, steam can be produced inside the container or freezer bag, resulting in ice crystals forming.

Air is another issue when freezing food, so make sure you choose a container that is the proper size for the amount of leftovers. You don't want a 3-cup container for 1 cup of soup or there will be too much air trapped in the container which can lead to decreased quality when reheated.

How to Reheat Leftover Ham and Split Pea Soup

From Refrigerated

You can use the sauté function on the Ninja Foodi or Instant Pot or the slow cook function is another good option.

I recommend adding some water or broth to the cold soup because it gets pretty thick when refrigerated. Sauté on low or medium and stir frequently until heated through.

Or, add the cold soup and some water and slow cook on high for about 30 minutes or low for about 60 minutes. Serve when the soup has reached 145℉/63℃.

From Frozen

You can easily heat the leftover soup from frozen without thawing first and the best way I have found to do this is using the slow cooking function on the Ninja Foodi or Instant Pot.

Add about ½ cup of water for every 4 cups of frozen soup. Slow Cook on high for 60 minutes (or low for 2 hours) and stir. Add a little more water if needed and continue to slow cook until heated through. Serve when the soup has reached 145℉/63℃.

More Delicious Soup/Stew Recipes

One of my absolute favorite things to make in a pressure cook is soup, stew and chili. You can get the same developed flavor in a fraction of the time and it's hands-off cooking!