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Instant Pot Split Pea Soup (with ham OR vegetarian)

Name: Instant Pot Split Pea Soup
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 55 min
Ingredients: 1 tablespoon olive oil; 1 tablespoon butter; 1/2 medium onion (chopped); 2 medium carrots (chopped); 2 sticks celery (chopped); 2 cloves garlic (minced); 6 cups vegetable or chicken broth; 1 pound green split peas; 1 pound smoked ham (chopped (optional)); 1 teaspoon smoked paprika; 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin; Salt & pepper (to taste)

Published: Mar 2, 2020 / Updated: Apr 23, 2020 / 32 Comments

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This Instant Pot split pea soup is much easier and hands-off than cooking it on the stove! This recipe can be made with ham or left vegetarian.

The Instant Pot method means you don't need to soak the peas or stand over the stove for an hour plus. This is the quick and easy way to make split pea soup. It's a healthy and hearty soup that's good and filling. I keep the ingredients and seasoning pretty simple, and the flavor mostly comes from the pressure cooking.

Obviously I cook a lot for this blog, and I never post a recipe that I don't think people will like, but sometimes a recipe just really really stands out for me. I was surprised with how much I liked this soup recipe since I can't even remember the last time I had split pea soup (where has it been all my life), and soups don't usually excite me this much. 😛

Many homemade split pea soup recipes use ham, which gives it a nice and smoky flavor. I wanted to create a slight smokiness with or without using ham, and smoked paprika is the perfect way to do it.

How to make split pea soup in the Instant Pot

Prep your onion, celery, and carrots, and add them to the Instant Pot along with the oil & butter and sauté for 5 minutes;
Add in the remaining ingredients (garlic, broth, ham - if using, peas, spices), and cook on high pressure for 15 minutes;
Do a quick pressure release after 15 minutes and serve it up!

Easy, right?

(Full ingredients and instructions are in the recipe card below)

You may also like my One Pot Ham and Pea Pasta.

What are split peas?

Split peas are simply dried peas that are cut in half for easy cooking. You can either use green split peas or yellow split peas for this recipe.

What kind of ham to use?

Add chopped ham (buy a packaged ham and cut it up yourself... you can find mini 1-2 pound ones quite easily at most grocery stores), or it's a great way to use up leftover baked ham from Christmas/Easter/etc. You could even add a ham bone or smoked pork hock.

Recipe notes & tips:

Add more broth to leftovers as needed (the soup will thicken the longer you leave it).
Use low-sodium broth if you're concerned about salt (ham can be quite salty).
This soup can be frozen.

More soup recipes to try:

Will you make this electric pressure cooker split pea soup?

Questions? Made this recipe? Leave me a comment below!