Basic Pantry Recipes — The Split Pea Soup That Tastes Like Every Cold November Day

A letter from a former student this week — Emily Dawson, class of 2003, who teaches middle school English now in Winooski. She wrote to say she still assigns "The Old Man and the Sea" because of my class. She said she thinks about what I told her fourteen years ago: "The fish doesn't matter. What matters is that the old man went out." I don't remember saying that, but it sounds like something I'd say, and Emily remembers, and that's what teaching is — you throw seeds and sometimes, years later, someone tells you one of them grew.

I put the letter in the desk drawer where I keep such things. There are more than you'd think. Thirteen years of letters from former students, some handwritten, some typed, each one a small piece of evidence that the thirty-eight years meant something. I don't read them often. I don't need to. Knowing they're there is enough.

I made split pea soup. The most honest food I know — dried peas, a ham bone, onion, carrots, celery, water. Nothing hidden, nothing dressed up. You simmer it for three hours and the peas dissolve and the ham bone gives everything it has and the result is thick and green and tastes like every cold November day that's ever needed warming. Helen says split pea soup is the food equivalent of a wool blanket. I can't improve on that description.

Helen started her Christmas planning. The clipboard has not yet appeared, but I've seen her making lists on a notepad, which is the clipboard's advance reconnaissance. The lists are growing. The turkey farm in Hinesburg has been contacted. The guest room beds need fresh sheets. The presents need buying. Helen approaches Christmas the way she approached nursing: with preparation, precision, and the unshakeable belief that proper planning prevents poor performance. The five Ps. She learned them somewhere. She lives by them everywhere.

The Historical Society asked me to give another talk. Jerry mentioned the cooking idea, and now it's on their calendar for January. "Old Vermont Cooking" — the food our grandmothers made. Boiled dinner, baked beans, brown bread, maple cream pie. I'll bring samples. You can't talk about food without bringing food. That's like lecturing about swimming without getting wet.

Split pea soup. A letter from Emily. Christmas lists. A talk to prepare. November moves. We move with it.

Emily’s letter was still sitting on my desk when I started pulling things from the pantry — the dried peas, the onion, the celery, the carrots. There’s something fitting about making the most stripped-down, unadorned soup I know on a day when I’d been reminded that the best things we do are also stripped down and unadorned: you say something true, you mean it, and years later it’s still standing. Split pea soup is pantry cooking at its most elemental, and that felt exactly right.

Basic Pantry Recipes: Classic Split Pea Soup

Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 3 hours | Total Time: 3 hours 15 minutes | Servings: 8

Ingredients

• 1 lb (about 2 cups) dried green split peas, rinsed and picked over
• 1 meaty ham bone (or 1 1/2 cups diced cooked ham)
• 1 large yellow onion, diced
• 3 medium carrots, peeled and diced
• 3 stalks celery, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 8 cups water (or low-sodium chicken broth)
• 2 bay leaves
• 1/2 tsp dried thyme
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• Salt to taste
• 1 tbsp olive oil or butter

Instructions

1. Sweat the vegetables. In a large heavy pot or Dutch oven, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion, carrots, and celery. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 8–10 minutes until the onion is soft and translucent. Add the garlic and cook 1 minute more.
2. Add peas and liquid. Add the rinsed split peas, ham bone, water (or broth), bay leaves, thyme, and black pepper. Stir to combine.
3. Bring to a boil. Increase heat to medium-high and bring the soup to a full boil. Skim off any foam that rises to the surface.
4. Simmer low and slow. Reduce heat to low, partially cover the pot, and simmer for 2 1/2 to 3 hours, stirring every 30 minutes, until the peas have fully dissolved into a thick, creamy soup. The longer it simmers, the richer it becomes.
5. Remove the ham bone. Lift out the ham bone. When cool enough to handle, pull any remaining meat from the bone, chop it, and stir it back into the soup. Discard the bone and bay leaves.
6. Adjust and season. Taste the soup and adjust salt as needed — the ham will have contributed saltiness, so season carefully. If the soup is thicker than you like, stir in a cup of hot water and simmer 5 minutes more.
7. Serve. Ladle into bowls and serve with crusty bread or a simple cracker. The soup thickens considerably as it cools; reheat gently with a splash of water.

Nutrition (per serving)

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