When I was a kid, my very favorite soup was split pea soup. My mom would make it using the ham bone from Christmas dinner. Through the years, I’ve made my own split pea soup, sometimes with the Christmas ham bone for flavoring, and other times with smoked sausage.
I think I actually prefer the smoked sausage.The sausage that I use is Conecuh smoked sausage. Unlike other sausages such as Kielbasa, this sausage needs to be cooked before using it in a dish. Part of the reason for cooking it is to get rid of most of the fat. It’s a bit time consuming, but well worth it!
Ingredient for Split Pea Soup with Smoked Sausage
Ingredient for Split Pea Soup with Smoked SausageHaving said that, I used the following ingredients: Smoked sausage, chopped onions, chopped celery, dried green split peas, salt, thyme, pepper and water.
Preparing the Smoked Sausage for the Split Pea Soup
Preparing the Smoked Sausage for the Split Pea SoupFirst, I sliced the sausage and cooked it over medium heat in my pressure cooker. I always use the pressure cooker because I don’t have to soak the peas first, and because the cooking time is so much reduced. Also, I tend to cook the sausage in two batches.
Finishing the Soup
Finishing the Soup
After the sausage was fully cooked, I drained it well on paper towels and used extra paper towels to remove as much grease as possible. I poured all of the fat from the pan and quickly wiped the inside with paper towels.
Then, I added the onions and celery to the pan, and cooked them over medium heat for about five minutes. The liquid that was given off helped to loosen a lot of the “fond” or little roasty bits from the bottom of the pan after cooking the sausage.
Next, I added the remaining the ingredients, starting with the split peas, sausage and seasonings. You can see here how different the cooked sausage looks!
Finally, I added the water.
After giving the soup a good stir, I secured the top of the pressure cooker and turned the heat up to high until full pressure was achieved.
Once full pressure was reached, I reduced the heat to maintain the pressure, and cooked the soup for 10 minutes. After the 10 minutes, I removed the pan from the heat and allowed it to depressurize. When I removed the top of the pressure cooker, the resultant soup didn’t look very good because the solids were at the bottom and the liquids were the top.
Not to worry. I used my “smart stick” that Susan got me for Christmas and gave the mixture a quick blend.
I served the soup with some toasted French bread. It was amazing. Yum!
Split Pea Soup with Smoked Sausage is amazingly easy to make in your pressure cooker and amazingly good to eat.
- 1 pound (16 ounces) smoked sausage sliced thin (See Tip 1)
- 1 pound (16 ounces) green split peas, picked over and rinsed
- 1 large onion 2 cups, chopped
- 3 ribs of celery 1 cup, chopped
- 2 teaspoons Kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
- 8 cups water See Tip 2
- Cook the sausage in a large pressure cooker. Remove and drain well on paper towels. Pour all fat from the pressure cooker and wipe down with paper towels.
- Add the onion and celery to the pressure cooker, and cook 5 minutes, stirring to loosen the browned bits at the bottom of the pan. Add the split peas, sausage, salt, thyme, pepper and water. Stir well.
- Lock the lid of the pressure cooker in place. Over high heat, bring the highest pressure. Reduce the heat just enough to maintain the high pressure and cook for 10 minutes. Remove from heat; allow the pressure to come down naturally. Remove the lid; stir well, taking care the blend in the peas and other ingredients that have sunk to the bottom of the pan. Correct the seasonings. Yield: 6 servings.
- May use 2 cups of diced ham in place of the smoked sausage. If using ham, combine the ham, onions and celery. Cook for 5 minutes and proceed as above.
- For a richer flavor, use chicken broth in place of the water