Slow Cooker Ham and Pea Soup with Bacon Recipe

This Slow Cooker Ham and Pea Soup with Bacon Recipe is a hearty recipe that is comforting on those cold early spring days. It’s a perfect recipe for using up left over ham bones with simple ingredients from your holiday dinner. At this time of year, Easter is right around the corner, so its a great time to save that ham bone for this delicious recipe.

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Don’t have any left over ham or ham bones? No worries, I can help you find some substitutions in the FAQ’s for this slow cooker recipe.

At my house we love ham, and one of the things I look forward to is having pea soup from the ham bone afterward during those cooler months. My mother would always save the ham bone after an Easter or other holiday dinner and make the family’s favorite pea soup. Simmered for several hours on the stove and the aroma of ham and onion throughout the house made into a nice thick hearty soup.

Why whole peas vs split peas

There isn’t much reason to use whole peas instead of split peas. It’s more of a preference, that is always what my Mother and Grandmother both used in their homemade soup and it just kind of stuck. Whole peas just have a longer cook time. If you only have split peas, that can be used just as easily. Follow the recipe as usual just cut your cooking time down by about half. Split peas take much less time to cook, so your pea soup will be ready much sooner. 

If you do decide to use whole peas but you want to cut down the cooking time, you can soak your peas in water overnight before you plan to make this delicious soup. Soaking the whole peas is also a great way to remove gas producing starches in the peas and will drastically reduce your cooking time by about half.

What you Need to Make Slow Cooker Ham and Pea Soup with Bacon Recipe

• Left over Ham bone
• Additional 2 cups of ham chunks or shredded
• 1/2 pound Bacon
• 1 pound yellow peas
• 1 Onion 
• 2 cloves of Garlic
• 8 cups meat stock or bone broth. 
• Slow Cooker 

Some add ins when cooking your slow-cooker split pea soup

• ​Bay leaf
• Bacon fat for even more bacon flavor 
• Canadian bacon works if you don’t have regular bacon on hand
• A couple medium carrots finely diced
• Celery finely diced

How to Make Slow Cooker Ham and Pea Soup with Bacon Recipe

For this recipe I will be using my Instant Pot on the Slow Cooker setting. If you have one, you could also use a crock pot. My Instant Pot Slow Cooker setting will work just like a crock pot, so no need to run out and get a slow cooker.

Dice up your onion and add it to your slow cooker.

​Mince the garlic and add that in as well.

Add your ham bone and ham chunks.

Pour in the peas and add your stock or broth.

Set your slow cooker for 6 hours.

Keep an eye on it to make sure it does not run out of water, or it will burn. If you put the 8 cups water in you shouldn’t have any issues.

When your soup is done and your about ready to serve, preheat a cast iron pan on medium – medium/low heat.

While your pan is heating up, remove the ham bone and remove any leftover ham from the bone and add it back into your soup.

Chop up the bacon into finely diced pieces and add to your preheated pan and cook until crispy.

Remove from pan once done and sprinkle a small amount of crumbled bacon onto each bowl of soup.

Enjoy!

Notes:

I do not add any salt to this recipe because there is already a lot of salt in the ham/ham bone as well as the smoky bacon bits.

If you want a smoother soup that’s not so lumpy, you can take a small portion and blend it in your blender a few pulses or for less dishes, use an immersion blender right in the slow cooker.

What to Serve with Slow Cooker Ham and Pea Soup

Croutons are a great addition to your ham soup. A nice slice of crusty bread slathered with butter is always a crowd pleaser as well.

How to Store Leftover Slow Cooker Ham and Pea Soup with Bacon

Store in an airtight container in your fridge for up to a week. This soup makes for amazing leftovers if it lasts that long before getting eaten.

You can also freeze them in a airtight container for up to 3 months.

I like using Souper Cubes so its easily portioned out and there’s no need for glass or plastic containers stashed away in the freezer. 

To use these, allow the soup to cool completely and add to your chosen Souper Cube container. They come in a variety of sizes, 1/2 cup and 1 cup sizes are most common.

Place the lid on and put on a level surface in your freezer and freeze until solid.

Once they are frozen, pop them out of the molds and place into a freezer bag. Don’t forget to label the bag!

Products Mentioned

6 QT Instant Pot – this has the Slow Cook option

Cast Iron Pan

Souper Cubes

Slow Cooker Ham and Pea Soup with Bacon FAQ’s

What can I use instead if I don’t have a ham bone?

You can check with your local butcher shop and see if they have any ham bones. You can also use a pork shank or ham hock. These are from the legs of the pig. The pork shank is from the shoulder and the hock is the ankle. Pork hocks and shanks can usually be found at your local grocery store. Most of the time you will find smoked pork hocks, this will work fine as well. 

Can I use green or yellow split peas instead of whole yellow peas?

Green or yellow split peas will work just the same. Be mindful of the cooking time. Since the peas are split in half they will cook much faster, so I would cut your cooking time down by about half. Just keep an eye on it, especially for water level. Also, green peas a are a bit more sweet then yellow peas, so if you don’t want a sweeter soup, yellow peas may be better. Green peas will also make your soup a bit of a green color of course, if color doesn’t matter to you, use the green if you please.

What can I use if I don’t have meat stock or bone broth?

Chicken broth or Chicken stock can both work. The same for vegetable broth or just cold water – filtered if possible. I prefer to use bone broth so I have the added health aspect of the collagen and other nutrients from long simmered bones.

Why were my peas were not cooked completely

If you were using whole peas, you will just need to cook it longer, also tap water can be a bit acidic and can prevent the pea from breaking down well. Soaking whole peas can be done overnight in some water and it will help cut down the cooking time because of how much water they absorb from soaking for so long.

Another possible cause is if your peas are too old. They can dry out even more over time and then need to be cooked even longer then a new bag of peas.

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Other ways to cook this slow cooker split pea soup recipe

If you don’t have time for slow cooking your crockpot split pea soup, the pressure cooker is a great, quick method for some Instant Pot Split Pea Soup. The stove top is also a great way to cook this easy recipe – just keep an eye on the water level so it doesn’t burn!

Other Recipes You May Like

How to Make Hearty Pork Hock and Meatball Stew

Homemade Corn Chowder Recipe

The Best Instant Pot Bone Broth

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