Hi friends!
It’s been four days since my favorite day of the year, and I can’t believe I’m going to say this but I’m honestly sick of eating leftovers. Don’t get me wrong— there’s nothing better than eating a big bowl of mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing and turkey the morning after Thanksgiving. Talk about a breakfast for champions! I might even argue that the leftovers are better than the meal itself. But after eating the same thing, all weekend long, I’m ready for something new.
And in our household, the week after Thanksgiving is reserved for one meal and one meal only— Split Pea Soup.
Now, you might be thinking to yourself— what is split pea soup and why do you make it every year after Thanksgiving?
Well, SPS (split pea soup) is a hearty soup, made with — you guessed it — split peas. The creator of this soup was obviously direct. Split peas come in both yellow and green varieties— we use green because they’re sweeter and less starchy than the yellow ones. Also, maybe eating something green will make us feel better about ourselves after eating plates of beige all weekend. At the grocery store, you can find them in the dried bean aisle next to the dried chickpeas and lentils.
The best part of these legumes? You don’t need to soak them before cooking. While other dried beans or peas need a good overnight soak before use, green split peas are ready to go, right out of the bag.
My family has been making this soup the week after Thanksgiving since I can remember because its ingredients are likely things you have leftover from making the big meal. Besides the split peas, the soup is flavored by onion, celery, carrots and leeks— likely all things you used in your stuffing. The liquid is equal parts water and chicken broth— but if you have extra turkey stock leftover, I’m sure that would be fabulous here as well.
And while it’s definitely not the most visually appealing soup, it packs a lot of flavor, and that flavor comes from a ham hock or ham bone. If you’ve ever seen a ham hock, you’ll know it’s less about adding meat to the soup; rather, it’s more about adding richness and salt. But hey— sometimes you’re lucky and get a meatier hock, and in that case, your soup will have more beautiful bites of ham. Lucky bitch!
At our usual Thanksgivings, we’ll serve ham alongside the turkey, always leaving us a big bone for future cooking. Unfortunately, this year, we couldn’t justify getting a whole ham for such a small group of us, but luckily, we had a ham bone in the freezer, waiting to be used for this soup. But if ham bones are not something you ordinarily have stored in your freezer (you should start), you can get them from the butcher at your local grocery store.
And lastly, before we jump into the recipe, we have to talk about my favorite part— the sherry vinegar. For me, this Spanish vinegar is what makes a split pea soup a split pea soup. It adds just the right amount of zing and zang to cut through the heartiness of the ham and peas. And while you can substitute it with rice wine vinegar or champagne vinegar, you shouldn’t. Just buy the sherry vinegar. You won’t regret it.
Once you realize just how delicious this vinegar is, you’ll be adding it to way more than split pea soup. You can add it to your marinades or salad dressings. You should definitely splash it over your roasted veggies. The possibilities are endless! Here’s some recipes that put sherry at center stage, where she belongs—
Bon Appetit’s All-Purpose Vinaigrette
Martha Stewart’s Grilled Zucchini with Sherry Vinegar
The Kitchn’s Warm Beet and Farro Salad
Bon Appetit’s Sherry Vinegar and Molasses Glazed Carrots
The split pea soup recipe I’m sharing with you today is the one my family has passed down to me. It was inspired by a recipe found in The New Basics Cookbook back in 1989, and while there are clear ingredients and directions outlined here, take them as suggestions, not rules. That’s what we do.
Use as much celery, carrot, onion or leeks as you like or have. If your ham bone is wimpy, add a second one for more flavor. If ham isn’t your thing, you could leave it out and add a parmesan rind instead. Sometimes I’ll pass on adding the spinach— other times I find it necessary. Any way that you spin it, it’ll still come out as a delicious, homey soup, perfect for warming you up on a cold December day.
Here’s what you’ll need—
1 lb dried green split peas
5 cups chicken broth
5 cups water
1 ham bone or ham hock
3 celery ribs, diced
3 tablespoons flat-leaf parsley, chopped
½ teaspoon dried tarragon leaves
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup carrots, peeled and diced
1 cup white onion, diced
1 leek (white part only), rinsed and sliced
½ bag of fresh spinach leaves
2 tablespoons sherry vinegar
Salt and black pepper
Start by rinsing the split peas in a strainer, and then combine with the stock and water in a large dutch oven. Bring to a boil.
Add the ham bone, celery, 1 tablespoon parsley and dried tarragon to the dutch oven. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer, partially covered, for about 45 minutes.
While the soup is simmering, melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the carrots, onion and leek, and cook until soft, about 10 minutes. Set aside.
When your soup has been simmering for 45 minutes, add the sautéed veggies and simmer for another 30 minutes with a lid partially on. At this point, the split peas should start breaking down.
Remove the soup from heat. Using tongs, remove the ham bone and any excess fat that’s fallen off the bone. Throw away the fat. Using a knife, shred any meat that’s on the bone. Return the meat to the soup.
Add the remaining chopped parsley, spinach and sherry vinegar to the soup. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
For what’s giving me life this week, it’s been spending as much time as I can with my baby cousins. They make me actually laugh out loud, but I need them to stop growing up! It was torching a layer of sugar for Food52’s Crème Brûlée Pie — this pie was fucking phenomenal. You need to make it. We also had a slice of cherry pie from the infamous The Blue Owl. We started listening to Christmas music and watching Christmas movies because it’s that time of year. Do yourself a favor and watch Happiest Season on Hulu. And while you’re at it, watch Billie Eilish’s fourth iteration of the Vanity Fair interview.
We made Alison Roman’s Caramelized Shallot Pasta, which may now be my all-time favorite pasta dish. And lastly, my brother is officially heading back to Denver during his long ass winter break, and I could not be more excited. Let the shenanigans begin!
Wish I was with you,
Maddie