English Pub Split Pea Soup -- The Kind of Thing You Make When the House Needs to Smell Like Something Warm

First real cold week of the fall, which in Louisiana means the mornings were in the low sixties and people wore jackets dramatically, as if forty degrees had arrived. I love it. I have always loved that shift, the way the air changes quality, the way the light gets lower and more golden. Fall in South Louisiana is brief and precious and I try to be fully present in it every year.

School was heavy with midterm preparation — Honors Biology, Algebra II, World History all testing the same week. I made a study schedule and executed it faithfully: two hours per subject across five days, practice problems, review sheets, a full night of sleep before each test. This is not interesting to describe. It is only interesting in the results, which were: 97, 94, 91, in that order. All above my target. I let myself feel good about it for exactly one evening and then refocused on the rest of the semester.

The week's unexpected highlight was a Sunday phone call from Priya, my roommate from the LSU summer program, who was now back in New Orleans and a freshman at a magnet school there. We had stayed in sporadic touch all fall and this call was long — nearly two hours — covering school, science, food, family, and what we each thought we wanted to be. She said she was thinking environmental medicine. I said environmental science with a food systems focus. She said we were going to end up working together eventually. I said probably yes. The certainty of it felt good.

I made a proper pot of white bean and sausage soup that Sunday — not a recipe so much as a tradition: navy beans soaked overnight, smoked sausage, onion and garlic, chicken broth, thyme and bay, long and slow on the stove until the beans were creamy and the broth was rich. Served with crusty bread and enough for the whole week as leftovers. Cold-weather food. Louisiana fall food. The kind of thing you make because the house needs to smell like something warm.

That Sunday soup tradition — the one I described with the navy beans and smoked sausage — put me in a slow-cooking, cold-weather-comfort state of mind that I wanted to carry forward. When I have a week behind me that asked a lot, and a phone call that reminded me how good it is to have people who know exactly where you’re headed, I want something on the stove that takes its time and rewards the patience. This English Pub Split Pea Soup is that recipe: thick, smoky, warming, and the kind of thing that gets better the longer it sits, just like a conversation worth having.

English Pub Split Pea Soup

Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 1 hour 30 minutes | Total Time: 1 hour 45 minutes | Servings: 8

Ingredients

• 1 lb (about 2 cups) dried green split peas, rinsed and picked over
• 8 oz smoked ham hock or diced smoked ham
• 1 medium yellow onion, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 medium carrots, peeled and diced
• 3 stalks celery, diced
• 6 cups low-sodium chicken broth
• 2 cups water
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• Crusty bread or pub-style rolls, for serving

Instructions

1. Sauté the aromatics. Heat olive oil in a large heavy-bottomed pot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add onion, carrots, and celery and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 6–8 minutes. Add garlic and cook 1 minute more until fragrant.
2. Add peas, broth, and seasonings. Stir in the rinsed split peas, chicken broth, water, bay leaves, thyme, smoked paprika, salt, and pepper. Nestle the ham hock (or stir in diced ham) into the pot.
3. Simmer low and slow. Bring the pot to a boil over medium-high heat, then reduce heat to low. Cover partially and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes, until the split peas have completely broken down and the soup is thick and creamy.
4. Remove ham hock and shred. If using a ham hock, remove it from the pot, let it cool slightly, then pull the meat from the bone, shred it, and stir it back into the soup. Discard the bone and any excess fat.
5. Adjust and finish. Remove and discard the bay leaves. Taste and adjust salt and pepper as needed. If the soup is thicker than you like, stir in a splash of additional broth or water to reach your desired consistency.
6. Serve. Ladle into bowls and serve hot with crusty bread on the side. The soup keeps well refrigerated for up to 5 days and reheats beautifully — it may thicken further, so add a little water when reheating.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 280 | Protein: 20g | Fat: 5g | Carbs: 38g | Fiber: 14g | Sodium: 520mg