The Perfect Lunchtime Companion: Split Pea and Ham Soup

by Ron Tackitt

These days it seems like all you hear is how folks are trying to lose weight and save money. Everyone knows one good way to help do both is to take your lunch to work, which lets you take control of what you eat and how much it costs you on a daily basis.

Unfortunately, I’m not the best at keeping to a regiment like this, but I do keep these things in mind when I am making a big pot of soup. It’s easy to transport and heat up at work, and makes a great compliment to a sandwich from the sandwich shop, that is luckily for me, just downstairs from my office. So, the other night I decided to give Split Pea Soup a try. I looked at several recipes and picked the stuff that sounded good and came up with this recipe. The next day, I took leftovers to work and thoroughly enjoyed having them for lunch.

I was surprised at how simple Split Pea Soup is to make, and most of the ingredients are quite inexpensive — which is good! Most recipes call for ham hocks but I opted for a ham steak with the bone in, and am quite happy with the results.

Gather together these ingredients and follow these simple steps:

1 pound of dried split peas
1 large onion
3 carrots
3 stalks of celery
1 clove of garlic
1 box of chicken/vegetable stock
1 large ham steak, bone in
1 teaspoon Cayenne pepper
Salt and Pepper
2 Tbsp. olive oil

Prep time: 20 minutes, cooking time: two hours, serves about six.

To start, open the bag of peas and spread them out on a couple of paper towels to check for bad peas. Once you have pulled them out, put the peas in a colander and rinse them well.

In a large saucepan pour in a tablespoon or two of olive oil, let it warm, then sauté the onions, carrots, celery and garlic until they start to soften.

While the vegetables are cooking cut the ham steak into bite-size pieces and trim away as much fat as possible. Save the bone, you will put this in the soup as well.
Once the vegetables are done, add the peas, ham and the box of chicken stock. If necessary, add some water to make sure all the ingredients are covered. Add the cayenne and salt and pepper to taste.

Bring this to boil, then lower the heat to a simmer and cover. This will need to cook for at least an hour, or up to two, depending on how mushy you want the peas to be. When the peas are fully cooked, turn off the heat and fish out the ham bone.

The soup will thicken considerably once it starts to cool. If it becomes too thick, add water slowly to thin it. You may need to reheat before eating.

When I served the soup at home, I put a small dollop of fat free sour cream on top, and I like to put a couple of dashes of hot sauce in the soup as well. At the office, I simply reheated it in the microwave and served.