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Instant Pot Split Pea Soup is a good recipe to use for leftover ham! Quick cooking and easy to make, this flavorful pressure cooker split pea soup is one of my most popular recipes. It’s really delicious!
Instant Pot Split Pea Soup
Turning on the Way-Back Machine, I can recall eating Split Pea Soup when I was still in a high chair! It has always been a favorite soup recipe of mine. This recipe is inspired by my Mom.
Use Leftover Ham
If you cooked a bone-in ham you can use the meaty ham bone to flavor this soup.
If you don’t have a bone, just use the ham meat, cubed. It will still add the flavor you want.
You can also use ham hocks. Best if not frozen.
A Faster Split Pea Soup
When I make Split Pea Soup on the stove, it takes 2 to 3 hours, though it tastes awesome!
I wanted to have a quicker cooking split pea soup, so I adapted my recipe for the Instant Pot®.
Pressure cookers are great for just this kind of recipe, as the flavors are extracted from the ingredients and make the broth taste delicious!
Pressure cookers speed up the process and cook the soup in way less time than on the stove.
Instant Pot Split Pea Soup only takes about an hour, with the sautéing and natural release, so that’s a big time saver! The peas come out nice and soft, and the flavor is very good!
If you want a Vegetarian or Vegan pressure cooker split pea soup, omit the butter (for vegan), use vegetable broth, and try some liquid smoke to give the soup a nice smoky hint of flavor.
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Instant Pot Beef Barley Vegetable Soup
Instant Pot Ham Hock and Bean Soup
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If you make this yummy pressure cooker split pea soup recipe, let me know! Please leave a comment with a star rating below. I’d love to know how you liked it!
Instant Pot Split Pea Soup
Ingredients
- 1 Tbsp Olive Oil
- 2 Tbsp Butter
- 1 Onion, diced
- 3 Stalks of Celery, diced
- 2 Bay Leaves
- ¼ tsp Thyme Leaves, dried
- 3 Carrots, chopped
- 4 cloves Garlic, pressed or finely minced
- ¼ tsp Pepper
- 6 cups Chicken or Vegetable Broth low sodium (use only 5 cups for a thick soup, 7 cups for a thinner soup)
- 1 lb Green Split Peas, rinsed and sorted (unsoaked)
- 1 tsp Liquid Smoke (Optional) for vegetarian version
- ½ tsp Kosher Salt (add last, after cooking, if needed) (1/4 tsp table salt)
Use any of these for your meat (or a combination of them)
- 6 slices Bacon (Optional) chopped
- 2 small Ham Hocks (Optional) Not very meaty, but add a nice smoky flavor and richness.
- 1 Leftover Ham Bone (Optional) I like to use this with the diced ham
- 2 - 3 cups Diced Leftover Ham (Optional)
Instructions
- Turn the pressure cooker on to the Sauté function. Let it warm up and add the olive oil and butter.
- Add the onion, celery, bay leaves, and thyme. Cook, stirring occasionally, until onion starts to turn translucent.
- Add the carrots, garlic, bacon or ham, if using, and pepper. Cook for a minute.
- Add the broth and ham bone or ham hocks, if using (Add liquid smoke, if using, for vegetarian method). Let come to a simmer.
- Stir in the split peas.
- Place the lid on the pot and lock it in place. Set the steam release knob to the Sealing position.
- Cancel the sauté function and Choose Pressure Cook/Manual, and use the + or - or dial to choose 18 minutes. High pressure. It will take a few minutes for the pot to come to pressure.
- When the cooking time has finished, let the pot sit undisturbed for 15 minutes to naturally release some of the pressure. Then turn the steam release knob to Venting to quick release the remaining pressure.
- When the pin in the lid drops down, carefully open the lid, facing away from you. Remove the bay leaves and the bone or ham hocks, if you used them.
- Taste and add the salt as desired.
- Serve hot. The soup will thicken quite a bit when it cools, that is normal.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
RESOURCES TO MAKE Instant Pot Split Pea Soup recipe and more
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Excellent Split Pea Soup!! I’ve been making stove-top split pea soup for many decades. Since I’m the new owner of an Instant Pot, I did a web search for a recipe or technique for using my new ‘toy’. This recipe looked great and all of the positive comments convinced me to try it. I only made a couple of very minor adjustments (EVOO + vegan butter, carrots in chunks, only 1 bay leaf, less liquid smoke, and 1 tsp of sea salt after cooking). I used 6 cups of vegetable broth. After the entire cooking process was completed, I did a very short whirl with my stick blender, leaving lots of texture. It was every bit as good as my stove-top recipe and SO much easier!
Hi- this looks delicious. Can it be made with yellow split peas, and if so what are the flavor differences?
You can use yellow split peas if you want to. I read that they taste earthier, and the green ones are sweeter. The yellow peas are the ripened version of the green peas.
Silly question…… forgetting to take my IP out I made stock with my ham bone stove top. How would I change the recipe using the ham stock that I already made instead of low sodium chicken stock? Will this be to salty now?
If your broth/stock does not taste too salty when you take a sip, it will be fine. Maybe omit any other salt to be sure. Then salt after tasting again after cooking. You can also use 1/2 stock and 1/2 water, or a combination that takes away some of the saltiness if the stock is too salty.
Wonderful soup, easy peasy 🙂
This is my go to recipe for Split Pea Soup. My wife, who is not a soup lover, likes this split pea soup. Delicious.
HELP!!! I really loved this recipe, however, I got the Burn alert on my Instant Pot while cooking. I followed your recipe to a T. Thankfully I didn’t scrape the bottom and I added more broth to the soup. It was salvageable. I tried your Cajun Pasta tonight and the same thing happened, it burned the spices to the bottom, but thankfully the chicken didn’t taste bad. I ended up making the pasta sauce on the stove. I followed your recipe to a T again. Please help, I want to love my IP but I can’t when it’s giving me issues.
Some of the newer IPs seem to be more sensitive. I would make sure that after sautéing anything, you add a little liquid to the pot and scrape up all of the browned bits from the bottom of the pot before pressure cooking. Also, be sure you are using the correct amount of liquid to split peas ratio as too many split peas will soak up the liquid and there won’t be enough liquid to create the steam needed to bring the pot to pressure.
Made this last night, followed directions to the tee, Thank you for sharing!
This soup is fabulous! I’ve made it about 4 times since I discovered the recipe a few months ago and keep buying whole hams so I can make it. I think the addition of the ham bone and liquid smoke elevate it to something really great.. My daughter and I devour it in no time. I’ve only just started experimenting with the Instant Pot, and would never had attempted split pea soup otherwise. This brings back memories of when my mom used to make it when I was a kid. Delicious!
Hi Sandy. I’m originally from Yorkshire, England but now retired to Austria.
I must admit, I’ve never made ham and pea soup in my 47 years married.
I bought my IP a little over a month ago and found your recipe on a recommend from Instant Pot recipes only.
This was delicious and will definately make it again.
Meat here is quite a bit different but mainly smoked so was ideal. I’d already cooked a piece of ham in the IP to have sliced in sandwiches so wasn’t sure if I should add it to the soup so I added afterwards. I was a bit bothered it would shred like chicken but think it would have been okay.
Will definitely be checking out your recipes in the future.
In the last week have recommended the IP to several people who have also purchased it, I’ll now pass on your info too.
Greetings fo Austria.
I made this today and had it for lunch it was the most delicious pea soup I have made yet
I used 7 cups of broth because I like it thin and it will still thicken up
I also used ham hocks and cut of pieces of a ham steak
My favorite besides the soup is how fast it cooks
Happy Thanksgiving