Delicious and hearty, this Quebec-Style Yellow Split Pea Soup cooks low and slow with vegetables and a ham hock, for a filling soup that’s perfect for lunch or dinner.
Fall’s cooler weather has definitely arrived here , so I’ll be embracing soup season, starting with this Quebec Style Split Pea Soup. This classic French-Canadian soup is warming and hearty and the perfect thing for cooler days.
This soup features split yellow peas, together with vegetables and spices and a ham hock or bone. The long simmer infuses such great flavour in the soup. This is a great soup to enjoy throughout the year, but is especially handy as as use for your left-over Christmas or Easter ham bone.
This pea soup is definitely hearty enough for a dinner soup, especially with the bits of ham in it. Serve with a salad and a crusty bread and you’re all set. If you’re a fan of Habitant™ soup, you’ll love this one!
Ingredients
Ham Hock: Many grocery stores carry frozen ham hocks now, so be sure to look in the frozen meat section for ham hocks if you can’t find fresh! I prefer a fresh ham hock, as you will get just pure pork flavouring in the soup. If you love smoked flavours, you can use a smoked ham hock.
Dried Yellow Split Peas: Look for these in the dried pea and bean section at your grocery store. Even though these peas are dried, you don’t want to start with a package that’s been in your cupboard for a long time, as even dried things can dry out more and become less than ideal. I always buy a fresh package from the store. Prepare your dried peas by rinsing well in a colander under cold running water, then picking through the peas and discarding any odd looking ones.
Chicken Broth: I try to use a low-sodium chicken broth for this soup and add salt myself at the end of cooking. Many people feel that extra salt in the simmering liquid will hinder the beans from cooking. For a vegetarian option, replace the chicken broth with vegetable stock. Alternately, you can skip the broth altogether and just use the same quantity of more water. I prefer the extra flavour from the broth, personally.
Additional Ingredients: Carrots, celery, onion, bay leaf, dried savory (spice), dried thyme, water, salt and pepper.
FAQ
What makes this soup “Quebec Style”? This soup is in the style of classic, Habitant, French-Canadian pea soup, that is made with yellow split peas, a ham hock and small pieces of vegetable. It is a thick, somewhat smooth-textured pea soup.
Can I use a smoked ham hock? If you want! Obviously, the smoked hock will add a distinctive smoked flavour to the soup. If you like that, it’s certainly fine to go ahead and use it. You will probably need to add less salt at the end of cooking.
Don’t I need to soak the peas before cooking? No. Unlike their dried bean counterparts, dried peas will cook quite quickly and easily without soaking or pre-cooking. Dried split peas will generally cook to tender in as little as 30-45 minutes without soaking.
Why didn’t my peas ever soften? I have never had this happen myself, but if your peas never got tender after cooking for several hours, it could be that the peas were old/too dry. It could also be related to your water. If your water is really, really hard, it can prevent dried peas and beans from softening.
Can I cook this soup in a slow cooker or instant pot? I’m sure you can, though I don’t have any real direction for you in that respect, as I’ve not done it myself. I would generally try to mimic the simmer rate and general time for the stove-top recipe for the slow cooker. I am not a regular Instant Pot user, so I don’t have any advice for you there. (If you have tried this recipe in a slow cooker or instant pot, I’d love if you’d come back and leave some information for others who may want to try it that way :)
How can I make this soup vegetarian? Simply omit the ham hock and substitute vegetable stock for the chicken broth. If you like, a crumble of veggie bacon on top would be a nice addition to this soup.
Is this soup gluten free? Most likely, yes. Be sure to make sure your chicken broth is labeled as gluten free, as some are not. It’s also worth checking the dried beans as well and seeking out ones that specify gluten free.
What if I can’t find ham hocks? If you can’t find ham hocks, you can get a little bit of that flavour by stirring a little cooked ham into the soup during the last half hour of cooking.
Why aren’t there any cloves in this soup? While it’s true that some French-Canadian Pea soup often is spiced with cloves, I am not a big fan of cloves and I don’t think I’m alone. It’s quite a powerful spice and can be divisive in terms of taste. I felt it safer to leave them out of this recipe. If you are used to cloves in pea soup or are a clove lover, you can certainly add some with the spices.
Cook’s Notes
I like to give this soup a super quick blend with the immersion blender. Not enough to puree it. Just enough to blend a bit of the peas in to the broth, for a thicker soup. Alternately, you could remove a cup of the soup and blend it in a blender. Or you could just leave it be. Your call :) Just be sure to remove the bay leaf before you do any blending.
I prefer to add all of the additional salt and pepper at the end of cooking, as I’m adding some salt with the broth and the ham hock already. Saving it until the end prevents an overly salty soup. That said, do be sure to taste and season well, if it needs it. It will help to bring together all the great flavours in this soup.
Get the Recipe: Quebec-Style Yellow Split Pea Soup
Ingredients
- 1 lb (453.59 g) unsmoked ham hock
- 2 Tbsp (29.57 g) butter, or cooking oil
- 2 medium (2 ) carrots, peeled and finely diced
- 1 rib (1 rib) celery, finely diced
- 1 medium (1 medium) onion, finely diced
- 1 3/4 cups (344.75 ml) dried yellow split peas, rinsed well and sorted through
- 1 (1 ) bay leaf
- 1 tsp (4.93 ml) dried savory
- 1 tsp (4.93 ml) dried thyme
- 4 cups (940 ml) chicken broth, or vegetable broth
- 3 cups (750 ml) water
- Salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Trim off and discard skin from ham hocks.
- In a large soup pot or Dutch oven, melt butter over medium heat. Add carrots, celery and onion. Cook, stirring regularly, until softened, about 10 minutes.
- Stir in dried split peas, bay leaf ,savory and thyme. Cook, stirring, for about 2 minutes.
- Stir in chicken broth and water. Add the ham hock. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low, cover the pot and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the peas are very soft and soup is thickened, about 1 1/2 - 2 hours. *NOTE: You may need to add additional water or stock if soup gets too thick.
- PICK OUT AND DISCARD BAY LEAF and remove the ham hock to a plate. *Note: I prefer a thicker soup, so I blend just a bit of the soup with an immersion blender or blender. Just do a quick blend (or blend just a cup of the soup. You don't want a completely pureed soup. You want it to retain most of it's texture, but the bit of pureed soup will incorporate with the broth for a thicker soup.)
- Let ham hock cool slightly, then remove any meat on the hock and add it back to soup. Discard the fat and bone from the hock.
- Stir to combine meat with soup. Taste and generously season with salt and pepper, to taste.
Notes
Hi Jennifer, just wanted to pass along a footnote for those in the U.S. Habitant ceased Canadian based production (began in 1918) of Pea Soup and relocated production to Tennesee in 2021. Canadian grown yellow peas are still used exclusively though. Due to this, availability in the U.S. may now be possible in some U.S. grocery store chains. Nothing beats homemade, but there may be hope for our American cousins when grocery shopping. Best soup ever!
Hi Mark and good to know! I’m happy that our American cousins can enjoy Habitant soup, as well :) Thanks so much!
The best split pea soup..I am actually cooking a bone-in ham so I can use the bone to make this soup! It also freezes beautifully.
Thanks for another great recipe. It’s a lovely fall day in southeastern Ontario.
I am so glad to hear, Mary and I’ve added ham to the menu, too, just to get the bone :) Thanks so much! (and it’s a drizzly, grey day in Muskoka, today, but perfect for baking!)
I’ve made this several times now and it is SO delicious! Love your recipes!
Hi Jules and thanks so much :) So glad you are enjoying the soup!
Absolutely delicious. So many of these Internet recipes are crap, this is not one of them. I make it all the time. 5 stars
So glad you are enjoying it, Tam :) Thanks so much!
I followed your instructions carefully, Jennifer, to make one-and-a-half times the recipe, and after a couple of hours I was very pleased with the texture and taste of the soup. Later, though, when I removed the pot of soup from the fridge, I noticed a dark, gelatinous liquid covering the surface and, assuming that it was basically fatty residue separating from the ham bone and its meat, decided that I should remove it. This was BEFORE I noticed in various other recipes that such liquid is simply excess water that can be blended and thickened into the soup beneath it—no recipe suggested actually removing this liquid. Now I’m concerned that I’ve taken away a depth of flavour/taste/goodness which was achieved through the slow simmering process. I hesitate to start “doctoring” this soup unless I’ve damaged it and it really needs to be adjusted.
Do I need to reconstitute the soup or should I just leave well enough alone?
Hi Mark, yes, it’s just the fat from the ham bone that has solidified when refrigerated. In some respects “fat is flavour”, but too much fat can also make for a greasy mouthfeel, which sometimes isn’t great. I will often remove what I consider “excess” fat whenever given the opportunity :) Sounds like you had a lot of fat, so I don’t think you’ve done any harm removing it. I suspect you didn’t get it all, so you’ll still have some of that flavour in the soup. The soup will thin when re-warmed. If after rewarming it seems too thick, you can thin a bit with some water or additional broth, as needed. Enjoy :)
I didn’t have a ham bone so I sautéed 4 strips bacon cut into tiny pieces and removed em from pot once lightly crisp Then followed the recipe but sautéed vegetables in the bacon fat. The bacon was added back into soup after it was cooked. If you are a fan of smokey flavour, I recommend you try this. Was drop dead delicious!!
So glad to hear, Lorraine! You can never go wrong with bacon :) Thanks so much!
I did this in the Instant Pot which I use almost exclusively for making stocks and soups like this. Most IP recipes will tell you 20 minutes on high, and then depressurize for 10 minutes naturally and finish manually. I left mine for 45 minutes, let it depressurize all the way and then left it on warm for awhile. I got a beautiful thick soup without requiring a blender and the meat on my (smoked) ham hock was an absolutely luscious texture. A little Worcestershire sauce when you serve does not go amiss.
Glad you enjoyed it, Susan and thanks for sharing your IP process.
I luv’d the pea soup recipe…..looking forward to making it again
So glad you enjoyed it, Maria :) Thanks so much!
Love Love Love the best pea soup recipe ever! Thanks for sharing.
So glad you enjoyed it, Laurie :) Thanks so much!
Since we cannot get the yellow canned stuff in the states, I thought I would give this one a try. OMG, so much better than I remember. The unsmoked ham bone was the key, especially since I had one left over from our Christmas ham. Thank you!
Also, I decided to see if it would work in the Instapot, so I pressure cooked it for 8 minutes and let it depressurize naturally. I turned out perfect with a couple zaps of my immersion blender.
So glad you enjoyed it and good info for anyone wanting to try the IP for this one :) Thanks so much!
Fantastic soup. I doubled the recipe, and freeze dried what was left after dinner! I did add about a tsp of apple cider vinegar to brighten the flavors! Thank you for the recipe, I have been missing the yellow can stuff since I have been in the USA for 7 years!
So glad you enjoyed it, Sheila :) Thanks so much!
Soup is wonderful! I make a big batch every year as written. It freezes well too.
So glad you are enjoying it, Carol :) Thanks so much!