As with all soup recipes, you’ll need to invest in high quality ingredients to get the tastiest results. For the ham, it’s advisable not to use any sweet or maple varieties, as you’ll find the sweetness from the ham then overpowers the flavor balance of the soup. Ideally if you can get hold of a baked ham, this will work best in the soup and you can simply chop it up into chunks when you’re ready to make this dish. Frozen green peas are the easiest variety of peas to use in this soup, but you can make a split green pea soup, though you’ll generally need to soak split peas prior to cooking. Frozen peas, therefore, are much quicker and easier to add to the dish. Chicken broth forms the basis of many tasty soup dishes, and once you’ve enjoyed this green pea and ham soup, you can explore lots of other different varieties of soup that can be made using chicken broth.
In the recipe shared, we’ve recommended taking the step to blend the soup, before returning to the stove to add the ham to warm through. However, if you prefer your soup on the chunky side, you can skip this step of adding to the blender and opt for a more textural soup. If, for any reason, you find that your soup is a little watery, you can add thickening agents like cornstarch, to help bring it back to the right consistency. On the other hand if the soup is too thick, you can add a splash of water or stock to the mix, to help thin out the soup, and continue adding as needed.
We’ve kept the recipe fairly simple above, but you can build in other ingredients as desired. Some chefs will choose to incorporate ingredients like carrots, garlic, and thyme leaves to bring additional flavor, texture, and nutritional benefits to this recipe.
How to serve it
Green pea and ham soup is perfect when served warm from the stove alongside a helping of fresh, warm, and crusty bread. You could also add garlic croutons directly into the soup to introduce a crunchy texture. For a hearty lunchtime dish, try serving your green pea and ham soup with a toasted cheese sandwich for dipping.
Storage
Green pea and ham soup will keep in the fridge for up to three days, and you can reheat it gently on the stove when you’re ready to eat it at a later date. You can even freeze this soup and it will keep in the freezer for up to three months. It will need to thaw in the fridge overnight the day before cooking and, once thawed, you can reheat it as you would fresh and straight from the fridge. Always reheat soup slowly over a low heat on the stove.