Kielbasa Split Pea Soup

Mark and Carmen are official. Facebook-official, which in 2019 is the digital equivalent of a church announcement, and Lourdes treated it accordingly — she called every sibling, every Filipino friend, and probably several saints to share the news that her son, the Navy man, is dating a Filipina-American from San Diego who eats Filipino food and goes to Mass and has a mother who cooks adobo, which means the genetic culinary compatibility is confirmed and the grandchildren will know what vinegar tastes like.

I video-called Carmen for the first time. She's warm, direct, funny in the dry way that military-adjacent women are funny — the humor of someone who has dated men in uniforms and knows that the uniform comes with a particular emotional operating system that requires specific navigation skills. She asked about my blog. She asked about the ER. She asked about the recipes. She said, "Mark won't cook. I need someone to teach him." I said, "Start with sinangag. If he can fry rice, he can be trained."

I made ginisang monggo — sauteed mung bean stew, the humble Monday dish, the recipe that Lourdes made every Monday because Monday requires nothing fancy, Monday requires nutrition and speed, and monggo delivers both. The beans simmered with garlic and onion and tomato and whatever greens were available — spinach, usually, in Alaska, because the malunggay leaves that are traditional are impossible to find unless you're Lourdes and have a network of Filipino gardeners who grow them in greenhouses.

The monggo was warm and earthy and filling and cost approximately three dollars to make, which is the Filipino immigrant philosophy of cooking condensed into a single dish: feed many, spend little, taste everything. Lourdes raised four children on monggo Mondays. The monggo never complained. Neither did the children. The monggo was there — steady, reliable, the Monday constant in a family that needed constants.

Jason ate the monggo with the acceptance of a man who has learned that not every Filipino meal is a festival — some are Monday, some are humble, some are just beans, and the beans are as important as the lechon because the beans are what Tuesday through Friday are built on. The ordinary meals. The unglamorous cooking. The food that doesn't get photographed but gets eaten, and the eating is the living, and the living is the point.

The monggo that night reminded me that the best recipes aren’t the ones that photograph well — they’re the ones that get made on a Tuesday when no one’s watching and everyone’s hungry. This kielbasa split pea soup lives in that same spirit: legumes, something savory, something green, and enough warmth to make an ordinary evening feel cared for. I started making it on the weeks when malunggay and mung beans weren’t an option, and it found its own permanent place in the rotation — steady, filling, and built for the kind of Monday that just needs to be fed.

Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 1 hour 15 minutes | Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes | Servings: 6

Ingredients

1 lb kielbasa sausage, sliced into 1/4-inch rounds
1 lb green split peas, rinsed and picked over
1 medium yellow onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 medium carrots, peeled and diced
3 stalks celery, diced
6 cups low-sodium chicken broth
2 cups water
2 bay leaves
1 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp black pepper
Salt to taste
1 tbsp olive oil
2 cups fresh spinach, roughly chopped (optional)

Instructions

Brown the kielbasa. Heat olive oil in a large heavy-bottomed pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the kielbasa slices in a single layer and cook for 2—3 minutes per side until browned. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside, leaving the drippings in the pot.
Sauté the aromatics. Reduce heat to medium. Add the onion, carrots, and celery to the pot. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 5—6 minutes until the onion is translucent and the vegetables begin to soften. Add the garlic and cook for another 30 seconds until fragrant.
Add peas and liquid. Add the rinsed split peas to the pot and stir to coat with the vegetables. Pour in the chicken broth and water. Add the bay leaves, thyme, smoked paprika, and black pepper. Stir to combine.
Simmer. Bring the soup to a boil over high heat, then reduce to a low simmer. Cover partially and cook for 60—70 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the split peas have broken down and the soup is thick and creamy. If it becomes too thick, add water 1/4 cup at a time.
Return the kielbasa. Add the browned kielbasa back to the pot and stir to combine. Simmer uncovered for an additional 10 minutes to let the flavors meld.
Finish with greens. If using spinach, stir it in during the last 2 minutes of cooking and let it wilt into the soup. Remove the bay leaves. Taste and adjust salt as needed.
Serve. Ladle into bowls and serve hot with crusty bread or steamed rice. The soup thickens considerably as it sits — thin with a splash of broth when reheating leftovers.

Nutrition (per serving)

Kielbasa Split Pea Soup — The Monday Dish That Holds Everything Together