This Instant Pot Split Pea Soup, made with a leftover ham bone (or any other ham), is a game-changer. The pressure cooker cuts the cooking time in half and imparts the flavor of the ham into every scrumptious bite. It’s so simple, but SO delicious. And it’s ridiculously easy to make!
What are split peas?
Dried split peas are part of a food group known as pulses, which include beans, chickpeas, peas, and lentils. I love cooking pulses in my pressure cooker because it takes such a short amount of time, meaning you can start it on a weeknight and have it ready in less than an hour for dinner. My last pressure cooker pulse creation was this Instant Pot Chili, made with dried kidney beans and ground beef.
I love cooking with split peas because they have many of the same health benefits as other pulses, but take a shorter time to cook and don’t require pre-soaking. And they are just so tasty!
And my favorite part about pulses: you get a lot of nutritional bang for your buck. They are one of the cheapest and healthiest foods out there- a whole 1lb. bag of split peas cost me only $0.89 when I made this recipe.
How to make split pea soup with a ham bone
If you’re planning on having ham this holiday season, do NOT throw out the bone! And don’t let the person hosting throw it out either. I fully plan on being “that person” who asks to take the turkey carcass home after Thanksgiving at my in-laws so I can make homemade turkey stock. I don’t care, I am who I am :-)
Adding a ham bone to split pea soup elevates it to a whole new level. There is a ton of flavor in the bone itself, as well as marrow and gelatin, which infuses into the soup as it cooks (which both thickens it and gives it many of the same health benefits as bone broth). And there’s also still likely a lot of meat left on the bone, which will easily come off after letting it simmer in the soup for so long.
Confession: I actually bought a whole ham JUST so I would have the bone to make this soup. Such is the life of a food blogger.
What to do if you don’t have a ham bone
You don’t have to be like me and buy a whole ham just for the bone! If you don’t have a ham bone – since it’s not very often in life that we come across them, is it? – you can definitely just use thick-cut diced ham, or a ham hock.
You can use a smoked turkey leg if you want a pork-free version.
And you can even make this soup vegetarian or vegan by omitting the ham and making a few other changes (see notes in recipe below).
What kind of pressure cooker to use
I made my Instant Pot split pea soup in (you guessed it!) an Instant Pot. It’s a very popular and high-quality pressure cooker, and I’ve been LOVING it.
You can even replace it for your slow cooker (it has a slow cooker setting as well). Pressure cookers not only cut the cooking time of things like pulses and tough cuts of meat wayyyyy down, but I find it also tends to cook things with better flavor than a slow cooker. It also has a sauté function, so you can cook up the mirepoix (that’s the fancy word for the celery, carrots, and onions) right in the pot.
Keep an eye out for black Friday sales- I got my six quart Instant Pot for only around $60 last year (what a deal!).
Don’t have a pressure cooker or instant pot? Just look at the recipe notes below for how to make this on your stovetop or in your slow cooker.
Other Easy Instant Pot Recipes
- Instant Pot Chicken, Broccoli, and Quinoa with Cheese
- Instant Pot Pot Roast
- Instant Pot Turkey Breast with Lemon and Thyme
- Instant Pot Pulled Pork
- Instant Pot Fish Stew
Here’s a link to all of my pressure cooker/instant pot recipes! For a plant-based version, try this vegetarian split pea soup with potatoes, lemon, and dill.
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Instant Pot Split Pea Soup with Ham
Equipment
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 1 onion diced
- 2 ribs celery diced
- 2 carrots diced
- 1 ham bone a smoked ham hock or 6 oz. diced deli ham can also be used
- 1 lb. dry split peas sorted through and rinsed
- 6 cups low sodium chicken stock/broth or veggie stock, water, or a mixture
- 2 bay leaves
- kosher salt and black pepper (see notes)
- chopped fresh parsley for garnish, optional
Instructions
- Turn pressure cooker to the "sauté" setting. Melt butter (3 tablespoons) and sauté onion, celery, and carrots for about 5 minutes, until softened.
- Add the split peas, chicken stock (6 cups), ham bone (or hock or 6 oz. diced cooked ham), and the 2 bay leaves. Turn off the "sauté" function.
- Cover pressure cooker and set to manual, high pressure for 15 minutes.
- Allow the pressure to naturally release for 10-15 minutes. Then, quick release the pressure valve.
- If you used a ham bone or hock: remove the it from the soup and remove the ham meat that’s still attached to it. Add the ham meat back into the soup.
- Taste and season with salt and pepper if necessary (see notes). Serve immediately, or store in your refrigerator for up to 1 week or freezer in an airtight container for up to 6 months.
Notes
- A note about salt: if you use salty chicken broth, you may not need to add any salt at all since ham is also usually very salty.
- The peas may take longer to cook depending on their age – the older dried legumes are, the longer they take to cook. This can vary based on brand, how long they’ve sat on grocery store shelves, or how long they’ve been in your pantry.
- If you want to use a frozen ham bone, you shouldn’t need to adjust the cooking time, since ham bones are technically already cooked, you’re just reheating it! Keep in mind though, the colder your ingredients are, the longer it will take to come to pressure.
- For a vegetarian version, omit the ham, use more salt and pepper, and make sure to use vegetable stock or water instead of chicken. For a vegan version, use olive oil instead of butter.
- If you don’t eat pork, you can substitute the ham bone for a smoked turkey leg.
- To make this in your slow cooker, add all ingredients (omitting the butter) to slow cooker and cook on low for 8 hours or high for 4 hours, or until split peas are cooked to desired tenderness.
- To make this on your stovetop, sauté veggies as instructed in a large pot. After adding the remaining ingredients, bring to a boil, cover, and simmer for approximately one hour (or until split peas are cooked to desired tenderness).
- Ham usually comes cured/smoked, which means it’s cooked and ready to eat. However, sometimes stores sell “fresh ham,” which means it’s uncooked. Do NOT use fresh ham for this recipe- use already cooked, smoked, and/or cured ham.
- This soup will likely thicken once it cools and is refrigerated, especially if you use a ham bone to make it because of the gelatin. Thin out with water and adjust seasonings as necessary.
- I made this recipe in my 6 qt. Instant pot. It should work the same in an 8 qt., but you may need to cut the ingredients in half for a 3 qt. mini. You should also be able to double the batch in an 8 quart pressure cooker.
- The provided nutrition information does not include any added sodium from seasoning to taste, any optional ingredients, and it does not take brands into account. Feel free to calculate it yourself using this calculator or by adding the recipe to Yummly.
Nutrition
Nutrition Information Disclaimer
The provided nutrition information is my best estimate and does not include any added sodium from seasoning to taste, any optional ingredients, and it does not take brands into account. I use an automatic API to calculate this information. Feel free to calculate it yourself using one of these tools:
Pete S
Just made this with our Christmas ham bone…it was AMAZING. Definitely the best thing I’ve ever made in the Instant Pot. Used extra leftover ham in addition to the recipe to make it a meal, and no salt. We are already scheming to figure out how we can get hams more frequently so this can become part of the winter rotation.
Elizabeth Lindemann
So glad you liked it!
Sue
Well, color me a dummy! I’m an experienced cook, but I don’t cook dried peas or beans frequently. The recipe did not mention soaking the peas prior and mine stayed little hard balls when pressure release time was over. Based on other soup recipes, I am recooking a bit to see if they’ll soften for me. Quite disappointed!
Elizabeth Lindemann
This recipe does not require soaking the split peas beforehand. I wonder what went wrong! You say the peas stayed “hard little balls…” were you by any chance using whole peas instead of split? That would definitely add to the cooking time. Other than that, I’d check that your pressure cooker is working properly and that it was set to the correct settings. I’ve never had this feedback before so I’m sure there’s an explanation somewhere! Hope they cooked up when you added a little more time.
Rae
My pet peeve is recipe reviews with “tweets.” I made the recipe exactly as outlined and it was excellent – I would give it 4.8 stars. But – I knew a chef years ago who made the best split pea soup ever and I was able to replicate the flavor here by substituting 2 cups of the chicken broth with 2 cups of white wine, and adding a dollop of sour cream and some pieces of minced ham sprinkled on top – it was to die for! Served the soup with homemade french baguettes and got rave reviews. Thanks so much for sharing!.
Elizabeth Lindemann
So glad you liked the recipe and love this idea of using white wine and sour cream! How luxurious sounding! Can’t wait to try.
Danielle
This was so good! My 4 kids ages 8-1 gobbled it up, which rarely happens. I followed the recipe exactly, with the exceptions of adding cayenne pepper, and used 4 cups homemade bone broth/2 cups water for the liquids. Will certainly be adding this to our winter menu rotation!
Elizabeth Lindemann
So glad you and your kids liked it!
Tracy
Very tasty, and easy to make! I used a 32 oz. carton of chicken stock plus 2 cups water for the liquid, and followed the recipe exactly. Delicious – thanks for the recipe!
Elizabeth Lindemann
So glad you liked it!
Daniel DesGrosseilliers
The soup was awesome.
Thank you.
Elizabeth Lindemann
So glad you liked it!
JAMES CLIPPINGER
Didn’t make it because of too many pop up adds!!
Elizabeth Lindemann
Sorry you had a frustrating experience! I don’t run popup ads on my site, but I do have a popup for my email subscription list, as well as a video that automatically plays showing recipes from my site after an advertisement. If you’re looking for an ad-free experience, I recommend buying a cookbook or subscribing to an online recipe site like NY times cooking or 177 milk street (both amazing). It’s important to me that my recipes are free and accessible to all, and running ads is the way I’m able to do this as well as support my family and earn income for my business. You can read more about the “why” here, if you’re interested (or anyone else who is reading this comment) :-) https://www.bowlofdelicious.com/why-are-food-blog-posts-so-long/
NikkiSmiles
The pop up was a bit frustrating since it blocks the screen, but it went away in a few short minutes. Made this tonight, was superb!! Instant pot for the win with this spilt pea soup. Thanks to you an the instant pot for making this easy!
Elizabeth Lindemann
So glad you liked it!
Are you talking about the email subscription popup, or was there an advertisement popup? If there is a popup ad aside from my email subscription box and the video player, I’d love to know about it, as those should never occur on my site. If you, or anyone else reading this happens to run across a popup on my site, I’d definitely appreciate a screenshot (you can send to elizabeth@bowlofdelicious.com) so I can address it with my ad company :-)
Diana
Turned out delicious 😋, fastest recipe ever for Pea Soup!
Elizabeth Lindemann
So glad you liked it!
Priscilla
This is the best thing I’ve ever made! A note about potentially not needing additional salt at the front end would be helpful (momentary panic but fortunately my stock was unsalted).
When taking meat off the bone, do you use any of the skin or fat? I’m a new cook :-)
Elizabeth Lindemann
Great idea! I edited the recipe to suggest seasoning with salt only at the end as well as a recipe note.
I usually discard the skin and fat and just keep the meat in there. Hope that helps and so glad you liked it!
Cindy Swink
I made this exactly as the recipe stated and it was absolutely delicious! Will definitely make this again.
Elizabeth Lindemann
So glad you liked it!
Daniel DesGrosseilliers
The soup was awesome.
Thank you.
Elizabeth Lindemann
Thanks! Glad you liked it :-)
Kim
I made this and it turned out so good! Super easy and spend a third of the time it usually takes.
Elizabeth Lindemann
So glad you liked it!
Gabby
I loved this recipe! My family likes a thicker split pea soup so we added some puréed cauliflower rice after it was done cooking. Thank you for this recipe!!!
Elizabeth Lindemann
Love the idea of adding cauliflower to thicken (and add veggies)! Glad you liked it :-)
T Marie
This was the most delicious recipe! I used my instapot for the 1st time using your recipe, and it was heavenly tasting. My husband loved it. So easy and inexpensive. Thank you!
Elizabeth Lindemann
So glad you and your husband liked it!
Christy
This will be my first soup just got my Insta for Christmas 🎄!! Can’t wait did it in a crockpot before. Finger crossed it tastes good!!
Elizabeth Lindemann
Hope it came out good for you!
Donna
It came out beautiful!!! Tastes great too. I did add garlic because my husband puts it in everything. But it’s perfect!
Elizabeth Lindemann
Thank you! Glad you liked it :-)
Mila
Hi! I made this soup and it turned out great, except I think I added way too much salt (more than the recipe called for). How can I make the leftovers less salty? Add some water ? Thank you!
Elizabeth Lindemann
I’ve made it too salty before as well, but I just forged ahead and ate it anyway haha! For leftovers, you can add a little water, but too much will thin it out quite a bit, so be careful. You could also add something else to the soup, like a can of cooked beans or some cooked potatoes, to help balance everything out. Hope that helps!
Cait
This recipe is absolutely delicious and spot on, plus easy, which is always great. I love that it is minimal prep and the Instant Pot does all the heavy lifting to get dinner on the table within an hour. I doubled this recipe in my 10qt IP and used a ham bone and 6 oz of diced ham. I also added 1 tsp of kosher salt and .5 tsp of pepper. If was absolutely perfect. Served piping hot with dinner rolls. My husband who hates peas ate every bite! It was sooooo good! I wrote this one down and put it in my recipe box for future use.
Elizabeth Lindemann
So glad you liked it! Great to know that it was easy to double in a 10qt pot. Thanks for sharing this!
Karin Kendust
Adding a raw potato and cooking it in the soup will absorb a lot of the salt.
Elizabeth Lindemann
Great tip, thanks!
Kelly
No need to add salt IMO, ham was already salty enough for the whole thing… otherwise pretty good.
Elizabeth Lindemann
Yes, the ham definitely has a lot of salt that’s added, and the chicken broth can also have enough. Between the two, I often don’t need to add salt either. So glad you liked it!
Taylor
If you double the recipe should you still only cook it for 15 minutes on manual high pressure? Or do you need to extend the time?
Love the recipe!!
Thanks
Elizabeth Lindemann
The timing should be fine at 15 minutes! It might take a little longer to come up to pressure FYI. So glad you liked the recipe!
Mar
If doubling this recipe does liquid need to be doubled as well? If so how much do you recommend? I prefer thick soup.
I’ve made this several times using the recipe you posted but it’s so good there’s never left overs!
Thanks much!
Elizabeth Lindemann
Yes, if doubling make sure to double the liquid as well! I always find this soup is pretty thick but you can always leave a little liquid out and add more after its cooking if it’s too thick. Hope that helps and so glad you like the recipe!
Tim Anderson
Great recipe to make a pot of hearty soup. Super easy, I put it together in like 15 minutes before a zoom meeting. It was finished, when my meeting ended, pulled out the bone and cleaned the meat off it. I only had one box of chicken stock, so I added a couple of cups of water and a couple of chicken bullion cubes. We loved it, looking forward to reheating the left overs.
Elizabeth Lindemann
So glad you liked it, and that it worked so well with your schedule! Those are the perfect kind of meals!
Jeannie
Just made this recipe turned out beautiful, added my own seasoning but cooked in that amount of time you said and it’s done ready to eat!
Elizabeth Lindemann
So glad this method worked for you!
Karen
I’m using bacon because I have no ham. Fixing up thick sliced bacon and putting it my instant pot with the onion mix. I have smiled garlic to add as well. I think I’m on to something good🥰
Elizabeth Lindemann
Sounds delicious! Hope you like it :-)
Scott
Fantastic!
I made a few adjustments. I added a couple of cloves of garlic, did not add salt and I did not saute my carrots and celery. Thanks for the recipe.
Elizabeth Lindemann
Glad you liked it!
Julie
I wonder if I can make this in the instant pot using a frozen ham bone
Elizabeth Lindemann
Definitely! Since a ham bone is already cooked through, it’s safe to add it frozen directly to the soup. But keep in mind, the colder the ingredients, the longer the pressure cooker takes to come to pressure. So you might be waiting a little while longer for it to start pressurizing. Hope you like it!
Julie
Put in carrot powder, because I was lazy, added celery flakes instead of celery ribs, because I don’t like cooked celery, added garlic, because my eldest daughter asked me to, and used water, because I had no chicken stock. The house smells devine. Can’t wait to eat it! First time I used the recipe I did add diced carrots, it’s delicious, had to cook this again!
Elizabeth Lindemann
So glad you liked the recipe!
Liz Schreiber
Made this yesterday. Added fresh Thyme, 2 gloves of garlic , smoked Paprika and used vegetarian broth because that is all I had in the house. Not like the old days where you just run to the store real quick. Lol. It was fantastic. And enough for me to freeze in mason jars for another cold night or a quick lunch. Thank you for this recipe. My husband and I love soups. He is especially happy if I bake an artisan bread to have with it. He loves his carbs. Again, thank you for a very good recipe even though I made it my own a bit. Sorry.
Elizabeth Lindemann
So glad you liked it, and love your additions! I have a huge thyme plant growing- I think I’ll add some next time I make this.
Amy
Made this tonight exactly as written, it was a huge hit!! Barely a bowl left. Will definitely make again!!
Elizabeth Lindemann
So glad you liked it!
Jason
Just bought my Instant Pot tonight and this was my first recipe. Used a ham hock because I could buy it at the grocery store. This was very easy and quick to make. And delicious.
I’ll be making Lentil soup next.
Thanks Elizabeth
AND
Thanks to Instant Pot.
Elizabeth Lindemann
So glad you liked it! If you’re looking for a lentil soup recipe I’ve got a GREAT one- one of my favorite all time soups: https://www.bowlofdelicious.com/greek-lentil-soup-faki/