Guest Sunday Soup: Split Pea Soup

I love it when someone makes a Guest Soup and lets me have some, even when they don't know I am going to blog it. :-) And, when I get a Guest Soup, I do not always offer my opinion or rate it because I am rather content with just sharing the opinion of the cook(s) with you. But, I happened to have found this one something special...

My friends Bill and Sheila made a Split Pea Soup this weekend that I thought was the best split pea I've ever had (and that is not hyperbole). As Sheila put it, "Bill has never followed a recipe in his life. He did not even know we owned measuring cups and spoons." LOL But, she did her best to recreate the recipe for me, and I am happy to share it with you now... Enjoy!

Name: Split Pea Soup
Cooks: Bill and Sheila

The Recipe (in - mostly - Sheila's own words):

We made an amazing bone broth with an FFA chicken! Worth it!

In the Instant Pot, we put 12 oz of dried green split peas and 4 cups of the bone broth, salt, and pepper.  Pressure cooked for 20 minutes.

Bill immersion blended that until smooth and added one cup whole milk then chilled.

The next day…

We put mirepoix (one cup-ish of each - diced carrots, onions, and celery), 2 cups dried yellow split peas, and 4 cups water in the Instant Pot.

While that was under pressure for 20 minutes, we baked 6 pieces of bacon until crispy and cubed ½ of a smoked ham from Costco.

After the yellow pea batch was done, we put all the things back in a pot together with one more cup of milk and slow-cooked it for just an hour more so it all heated through, and then did one last check for salt and pepper.

*Pic 1 - Picture from when Bill and Sheila made it

So, Was It Any Good?:

When I talked to Bill about it before I was able to try it, he said it was really good. So, he liked it... But, since I got to try it too, I wanted to share my thoughts, with Bill and Sheila's indulgence, of course!

Yeah, it was great! As I said at the outset, this is (officially) the best split pea soup I have ever eaten!! It was deeply flavorful, full of more subtle flavors (e.g., smoke from the ham, earthiness from the peas, salty richness from the bacon, sharpness from the pepper, etc.) than I was expecting. The soup was also a panoply of textures thanks to the mirepoix and (delightful) chunks of meat; the large chunks of ham may have been my favorite part, each bite bursting with savory goodness. In short, if this soup was featured at one of my local restaurants, I'd order it each and every time I dined there!

Verdict: Loved it!! (5 stars)

Thanks, Bill and Sheila, for sharing a great recipe!