Name: Split Pea Soup for Prosperity in the New Year
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 8 h
Total time: 8 h 20 min
Yield: 12
Cuisine: Mediterranean
Ingredients: 24 oz dried split peas; 1 medium onion, chopped; 3 garlic cloves, minced; 4 cups fat-free chicken stock; 4 cups fat-free beef stock; 4 cups water; 2 teaspoons of olive oil; 2 large carrots - finely chopped; 1/2 teaspoon of sea salt; dash of freshly ground black pepper, to taste; 2 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves, divided; 1 bay leaf; 1 ham hock bone, with a bit of ham on it

Cook up a pot of this green split pea soup with ham bone easily in a slow cooker, and enjoy a hearty and comforting soup.

It is the perfect way to use up leftover ham from Christmas. It is always a part of our menu on New Year’s Day.

Is there anything more satisfying than a bowl of homemade soup? It’s so filling and comforting and warms the bones. Crock pot soups are some of the easiest soups to make. Basically, everything gets dumped into the slow cooker and you let it do its thing for a few hours while you get on with your day.

Not only does the house smell great all day long, but getting dinner on the table requires very little effort at the end of the day.

If you love the flavor of this soup, be sure to try my curried carrot soup. It is another soup that is rich and creamy.

Split Pea Soup Brings Money in the New Year

There is a New Year’s tradition that dates back to the Civil War that says that if you eat black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day it will bring prosperity and luck in the New Year to come. This is especially true when some coins are tucked into it, making it a “good luck money soup.”

My grandmother from Maine revised this tradition to say that if you eat homemade split pea and ham hock soup on New Year’s Day, it will bring you prosperity in the form of money in the New Year.

I thought it would be a great idea to add this delicious New Year’s soup to my crock pot recipes collection in honor of my grandmother.

For as long as I can remember, for my family, January 1 of every year started with a different recipe of Green Split Pea Soup and crusty homemade Italian bread.

The money part of it hasn’t worked out for me yet, but I live in hope that my new recipe each year will be the winning one!

This Civil War recipe for split pea money soup is an adaptation of my Grandmother’s plain Jane green pea soup recipe which called for nothing more than ham and split peas.

Hopefully, this variation will do the trick to add to my prosperity and also help shed the extra pounds that I seem to have gathered since Thanksgiving!

What are split peas?

Split peas are from the family of legumes. They are a type of field pea that is grown specifically for the dried bean market.

When split peas are hulled and then separated into two along the natural seam in the legume, they become split peas. This encourages faster cooking.

Split peas will be kept in an airtight container for up to one year. They are high in protein in fiber and very low in fat. Split peas turn quite creamy when they are cooked making them an ideal candidate for soups.

This type of legume comes in both green and yellow colors. The green split peas are sweeter. The yellow split peas are milder and have more starch, as well.

Both types will work in my pea and ham soup, but I am using green split peas today.

How to make split pea soup

This easy pea and ham soup is full of hearty and healthy ingredients. I like to gather them all before I start cooking to make sure I have everything on hand.

You’ll need these Ingredients:

dried split peas
an onion
garlic
chicken broth
beef broth
water
olive oil
carrots
sea salt and cracked black pepper
fresh thyme
a bay leaf
a ham hock with a bit of ham left on it

You will also need a large crockpot. I use a 6 quart variety. This recipe makes a lot of soup and you don’t want to overfill a small crock pot or the results won’t be as good.

Making the crock pot pea soup:

Chop the carrots finely. The soup is enhanced by its flavor, but the pieces need to be small, since all the other ingredients are small-sized. (See my other tips for slow cooking here.)

Wash the split peas and drain them well. There are sometimes bits of grit in bags of split peas and this will make sure that just the best part makes it to the pot. There is no need to soak them, though.

Sauté onions and garlic in the oil and add these to a slow cooker. This takes a bit of extra time but gives a nice caramelized onion flavor to the soup.

Add the vegetables, split peas, and ham hock along with the stock and water and season to taste.

I normally wait until 30 minutes before serving to add fresh herbs but I want some to season now and I’ll add more later.

Cover and cook on high for 3 hours then reduce and cook on low for 4 hours more.

A half hour before serving, remove the ham from the hock, discard the ham bone, and dried bay leaf, and add more fresh thyme.

If you like a smooth consistency to a soup, you can use an immersion blender to give the soup a thick and smooth texture if you wish, but it is not necessary – the chunky soup is also fine.

Tip: Make sure to check the water and consistency of the soup from time to time. You may need to add hot water or stock if the pea soup becomes too thick.

See other recipes using bay leaves here.

Making this a split pea “money” soup

For a special treat, add a coin to the pot just before serving time. Legend has it that whoever gets the coin will have especially good luck this year!

My grandmother was a bit too “frugal” to add coins to her soup recipe, but since the money part hasn’t worked for me yet, there is no harm in going the extra mile and adding a dime to the pot so that one person gets an unexpected surprise.

This “money soup” superstition dates back to the days when Appalachian people used to cook a dime in their cabbage for the New Year as a good luck token for the unsuspecting person who found it!

What to serve with split pea soup

Any kind of crusty bread works well with the soup and helps to get every last drop of deliciousness from this green pea soup. Some recipe ideas are:

Nutritional information for this green split pea soup

Even though this soup is rich and creamy, it is also very light in calories and saturated fat. Each bowl has just 117 calories and a whopping 10 grams of protein.

The soup is gluten-free, dairy-free, Paleo, and Whole30 compliant, too!

I hope this split pea soup with ham bone brings you prosperity of all kinds in the coming year. Do you have other traditional food recipes to start your New Year? I’d love to hear about them in the comments below.

Admin note: This slow cooker split pea soup with ham hock first appeared on the blog in January of 2013. I have updated the post to add new photos, a printable recipe card and a video for you to enjoy.

Pin this split pea soup for later

Would you like a reminder of this ham and green pea soup? Just pin this image to one of your crock pot boards on Pinterest.

Yield: 12 servings

Split Pea Soup for Prosperity in the New Year

Dried split peas combine with a meaty ham hock to created a rich and creamy soup that is very comforting.

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 8 hours

Additional Time 15 minutes

Total Time 8 hours 20 minutes

Ingredients

24 oz dried split peas
1 medium onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
4 cups fat-free chicken stock
4 cups fat-free beef stock
4 cups water
2 teaspoons of olive oil
2 large carrots - finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon of sea salt
dash of freshly ground black pepper, to taste
2 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves, divided
1 bay leaf
1 ham hock bone, with a bit of ham on it

Instructions

Wash split peas and drain them.
In a pot, saute onions and garlic in about 2 tsp of oil. Add these to a slow cooker.
Add peas, carrots, ham hock and your chicken and beef stock and water.
Stir in half of the fresh thyme and the salt and pepper to taste.
Cook on high for 3 hours.
Reduce and cook on low for 4 hours more.
1/2 hour before serving, remove the ham bone and bay leaf and blend with an immersion blender if desired.
Add the rest of the thyme.
Season to taste and cook on low for another 15 minutes.

Notes

Make sure to check the water and consistency. You may need to add hot water if it becomes too thick.

For extra good luck for one person, add a dime to the soup just before serving it. Whoever is lucky enough to get the bowl with the money will have extra good luck this year!

Green Split Pea Soup with Ham Bone – Hearty Crockpot Split Pea Soup