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Split pea soup is my ultimate favorite creamy soup. It is especially delicious when served with a grilled cheese sandwich. These days I try to make as many of my meals from scratch, mainly to reduce sodium, and because I don’t know what so many of the ingredients are. Other than words I cannot pronounce!
At any rate, I love my InstaPot!! And, a quick “Sherri Story” is that I just recently found out that it is actually an “Instant Pot”. Hmmm; I guess it works either way, but for me, I am going to continue to call it an InstaPot!
Getting Back on Track
The nice thing about the InstaPot is that you can cook dried split peas in about 15 minutes! Think about that for a minute – split pea soup in a split second!
Adding in prep time, and time for the InstaPot to pressurize, along with release times, you are looking at about an hour altogether. Not too long to wait for a delicious bowl of homemade split pea soup! It’s so easy!
For me though, it isn’t a full meal unless I have the grilled cheese sandwich to go with it. I don’t typically eat a lot of bread, but I do like my occasional English muffin.
So, when I made this soup last week, I used English muffins in place of regular bread. But a lot of times, I do make it with regular bread and it is lovely!
Earth-Shattering Discovery Folks!
WOW!!! I love happy accidents like discovering how delicious a grilled cheese can be on an English muffin! So yummy because the bread is a little bit crunchier and toasts up nicely, and the cheese just oozes over the sides. My mouth is watering just thinking about this delightful dinner!
The great thing is that you can get the grilled cheese sandwiches ready while the split pea soup is cooking. Then, grill them right before you serve the soup! Check out my grilled cheese sandwich recipe.
Let’s Get Started
I have tried a lot of recipes from Pinterest, but so many of them have too much carrot in them. Consequently, my Split Pea Soup looked and tasted more like Carrot Soup. Not my favorite.
Time to Make our Soup
First, you need to chop the onion, celery, carrot, and ham and set them aside. I add as much ham as I like because that is just how I roll. Don’t be too worried if you want to have a little more ham. It will simply add a little more flavor.
I usually buy the spiral sliced ham, cut it up and freeze it. My hubby and I eat the sliced ham for breakfast. Thus, by freezing it we can be sure it stays good. It’s a great way to save money by buying the larger ham. Especially when it is just the two of us these days.
Using a Hambone is the Best!
The nice thing is, the spiral sliced ham comes on a bone, so I freeze the bone and use this to make my split pea soup when I can. It just adds so much more flavor. And, the ham left on the bone will simply pull off to be added back into the soup.
Turn the InstaPot on to “Saute” and let it heat up. Once warm, add the oil and let it get warm as well. It only takes a few seconds to heat up the oil.
Saute the chopped veggies a few minutes to soften them. Then rinse the dried peas and let them drain. They will stick together a bit, mainly because they are very starchy!
Everyone in the Pool!
Add seasoning, ham, split peas, and chicken broth and stir well to combine. Set the pressure at “High” and set the time for 15 minutes. Once it is done, allow the InstaPot to natural release for 15 minutes.
The absolute greatest thing is that the InstaPot automatically switches to “warm” after the pressure cooking is done. Thus, your soup can be kept nice and warm until you are ready to serve it!
Puree the Soup if you Like
Once the soup is done, I take my Bamix Immersion Blender and blend all of the ingredients right in the InstaPot.
At this point, I add a little more chunked up ham to the split pea soup to give it some texture. If you are using the ham bone, take it out before blending, and add the meat back into the soup.
Once this is all done, and the split pea soup is ready to go, I keep it on the warm setting while I make my “world-famous” grilled cheese sandwiches. Well, at least in my world, they are famous!
Once the sandwiches are done, I serve the split pea soup and enjoy my delicious meal.
Enjoy!
Split Pea Soup - InstaPot
Equipment
- InstantPot Pressure Cooker
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp Olive Oil extra virgin
- 1/2 Onion, chopped about 1/2 cup
- 2 stalks Celery, chopped about 1/2 cup
- 1 small Carrot, chopped about 1/4 cup
- 4 slices Ham, chopped or 1 Hambone with some meat more or less is okay
- 1 pound Split Peas dried
- 6 cups Chicken Broth
- 1/2 tsp Pepper, ground
- 1/4 tsp Salt
Instructions
- Chop onion, celery, and carrot and place in a bowl.
- Chop ham into chunks and set aside.
- If using a Ham Bone, you don't need to chop off the ham that is on the bone.
- Rinse dried peas, drain and set aside. (They will stick together when added to the InstaPot, which is normal.)
- Turn on the InstaPot to the Saute setting, and add oil.
- Saute the onion, celery, and carrots a few minutes to soften.
- Add salt, ground pepper, chopped ham, chicken broth, and split peas. Stir to combine.
- Set Pressure at high and set timer for 15 minutes. Cover and cook, letting it natural release for about 15 minutes.
- Once the soup is done, you can puree it with a immersion blender if desired.
Notes
