Split Pea Soup with Barley and Ham {Slow Cooker}
This slow cooker split pea soup with barley and ham is thick and hearty, bursting with homey flavor, and so simple to prepare.
Fact: Before this recipe, I had never made (or tasted!) split pea soup, nor had I ever bought the dried little peas from the supermarket, cute as they may be.
Fact: Before this recipe, I had never made (or tasted!) anything with barley in it, nor had I ever bought the hearty stuff from the supermarket.
Fact: I was nervous about this soup. Very, very nervous. I had “dinner plan b” all set out and ready to go in case of failure.
Fact: I have been heavily converted to split peas and barley. Oh my. This soup is incredible! Thick and hearty, bursting with homey flavor, it is a creamy, nearly stew-like consistency loaded with salty bits of ham and the wonderful texture of the chewy barley. The peas (which you already know if you are a split pea aficionado) dissolve into a creamy, silky concoction that melds all the components together. It all comes together so perfectly that my hesitation and concern over potential weirdness had no foundation. No weirdness, only yumminess.
Fact: It is healthy. You should love me for that fact alone. Granted, it may not be the most photogenic of all soups, but it is nutritious. And delicious. Did I mention that?
Fact: If you are hesitant about split peas and barley (like I once was!), I guarantee you’ll love this. Chock full of vegetables and other wonderful goodness, this is the perfect solution to winter weather (the same winter weather that obviously hasn’t received my memo to skedaddle promptly).
Fact: Last one, I promise. It’s a cinch to prepare. We are talking minutes. Then a few hour bask in the slow cooker and you are ready to devour.
What to Serve With This
- French Bread Rolls or Buttery Cornmeal Crescents
- Fresh fruit or a light fruit salad like this Honey Lime Fruit Salad
- Sliced cheddar cheese
One Year Ago: Hawaiian Haystacks – Chicken Sauce Reinvented
Two Years Ago: Sweet and Sour Meatballs
Three Years Ago: Classic Buttermilk Waffles…with Cheese!
Split Pea Soup with Barley and Ham {Slow Cooker}
Ingredients
- 1 cup dry split green peas
- ½ cup medium pearl barley, not quick-cooking barley
- 2 cups chopped ham
- ¾ cup chopped carrots
- ¾ cup chopped yellow onion
- ¾ cup chopped celery
- 5 cups water
- 2 chicken bouillon cubes, or 2 teaspoons chicken bouillon granules
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 bay leaf
Instructions
- In a medium bowl or liquid measure, combine the water, bouillon cubes and spices and whisk to combine (it’s ok if the bouillon cubes don’t completely dissolve).
- In a medium round slow cooker (about 4-quart), layer peas, barley, ham, carrots, onion and celery. Do not mix. Pour in the water/spices mixture and add the bay leaf to the slow cooker. Don’t stir! Cover the slow cooker and cook on high for four hours or on low eight hours, until the peas reach the desired creamy, soft texture. Remove the bay leaf, stir well, and add salt and pepper to taste, if needed.
- Serve immediately. Upon sitting and/or refrigerating, this soup thickens considerably. Simply add water or chicken broth to thin the soup to the desired consistency before reserving.
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Recipe Source: adapted slightly from my friend, Lesli D.
Mel, this is totally a hidden gem on your website! I can’t believe I’ve never made it until today – but you’d better believe that I’ll be making it again and again! Pure comfort food! The whole family loved it and the kids giggled over the green color!
I’m glad you liked this one, Kelsey! It’s a homey/homely little soup, but the flavor is tremendous!
Its me again, could I use hulled barley in this recipe instead of the pearled?
Taste bud explosion.
Amazing.
I went 25 min on high pressure in my ninja foodi, quick release.
Yellow peas, pearl barley, and left over smoker ham with bone in.
Added some fresh garlic as well.
Used instant pot (25 minutes, natural release) and added thyme because we enjoy thyme in pea soup. It was a fantastic tasting, high fiber, economical and easy to prepare. It will be included in our cool weather meal rotation.
I had a ham bone to use up and came to your site for something other than regular split pea. The barley is such a great addition. This soup is pure comfort food, so good! I did add a bit more water at the end. No butter or oil in the recipe – so healthy.
Someone gave me 6 bags of split peas so I find this recipe and made this tonight (25 mins on the instant pot instead of in the slow cooker) and it was a super hit! My husband wants it on the dinner rotation once a week. I’ve never done split peas before (I was scared to even try it because it just had always looked gross) but it was really creamy and yummy! All the kids ate it happily besides my 2 and 4 year who refused to try it because it looked weird. I was tired #longday so I didn’t fight them, (if they’re hungry they’ll come back and eat it.) Thanks again, Mel! It was even more flavorful than I could have imagined!
This is fantastic and so easy. The only thing I usually do differently is to sauté the onions first. Just personal preference. But…this past week I thought I did all the same things but when I looked at it 7 or 8 hours later I couldn’t figure out why it looked so different. I had accidentally used lentils instead of peas! It was also really good this way!
This was delicious. My whole family loved it. I had a ham bone that I’d saved from Thanksgiving that I cooked down and used that broth in place of chicken broth. Other than that and using a larger oval crock pot, I followed the recipe exactly and it turned out perfectly. Will definitely make this again.
When I tried to share this recipe via facebook I was told the link violates their community standards. Isn’t that so strange. I’m not sure why it won’t work, but it’s making my chuckle.
What? Wow, that’s odd. I’ll look into it and see what’s going on. Funny, though. I can’t imagine why unless it’s that the pictures of the soup aren’t that appealing. Haha.
Wow this is delicious and also pretty healthy too (low calorie with lots of protein and fiber)! Gotta love such an easy slow cooker meal and it’s perfect for a rainy cold morning like today (I cooked it overnight in the crock pot). I used chicken broth instead of boullion and it turned out beautifully. Thanks Mel!!
Thanks, Abby!
Delicious! Made this exactly like the recipe except I used chicken broth instead of water and bouillon cubes. Really happy with this and will add it to my soup repertoire.
This is delicious!
Any thoughts on converting to Instant Pot pressure cooker?
Oops…ignore me. I should have read the comments before I asked. Thanks y’all!
wonderful, wonderful, wonderful soup, mel! have made this several times and passed along the recipe with as many similar rave responses. simple and deeelish! many thanks and kudos to you!
I also made this in the Instant Pot (two nights in a row!) and slightly adapted it. I sautéed the onions with some garlic for a few mins, I used cumin and paprika which I added to the sautéed onions and garlic, and I used big chunks of sweet potato instead of celery. I also used turkey stock instead of buillion cubes as that was what I had on hand. I followed Megan’s idea in th comments and ran the IP on manual for 25 mins. The carrots and sweet potato came put pretty soft, so make sure to keep your chunks big. The barley turned out perfect. The soup was amazing – this recipe is a keeper, thanks Mel!
Love the feedback about using the Instant Pot!
I made this in the Instant Pot tonight and wanted to share my experience. I put the water and bouillon in and turned in the saute function while I chopped the other ingredients so that it would come to pressure quickly. Once everything was in, I tried what was suggested before: 10 min on the soup function. For some reason this want nearly long enough. My barley and peas were still really tough. I ended up doing two more sessions of 8 minutes each on the manual setting and that was perfect. Very close result to the slow cooker version. So for anyone else who wants to try, I’d actually recommend doing the manual setting for at least 25 minutes. It sure is delicious!
Thanks for adding your tips!
Hi Mel,
This is one of my favorite soups! Have you ever tried this in the Instant Pot? I was thinking of experimenting with it but figured I would ask you first.
I haven’t tried it yet in the IP!
I made this in the Instant Pot tonight. Hit the “Soup” button and set it for 10 minutes. It was wonderful! Big hit with my husband and brother in law.
Awesome!
Hi Wendy, what size pot did you use?
This was just what I wanted to ask about too!
the perfect recipe to throw in the crockpot before work, I’ve made it twice now, SO good and i feel like its healthy too! Thanks for another great recipe!
So I just put this all in the crock pot….BUT I didn’t read the directions!!! Stupid me!
I stirred it all together before cooking!! Hope it will be ok!!
I have made this soup countless times and just love it. We are now, unfortunately, gluten free and therefore need to forego the barley. Do you think, or have you heard of anyone using, rice would maybe be a good barley sub? Sigh…
I haven’t heard of anyone trying rice but I think it’s definitely worth experimenting.
You could try gluten-free oat groats (whole oats before being rolled or cut)…
This soup is so homey, comforting, hardy, and good. It is just perfect for a cold winter night……or lunch! My husband actually asks for it. I just love that it is so easy to prepare. Thanks to you, we enjoy it often.
I had a lot of leftover ham. I love homemade split pea soup, and figured I could make something similar work with the lentils I had in the pantry. I trust all of your recipes and this one seemed modifiable especially after reading the comments. I layered the ingredients as you suggested (subbing the lentils and leaving out the barley). I also increased the liquid by a couple of cups. Since I had the ham bone with bits still stuck to it, I nestled it in after adding all of the other ingredients. I cooked it on low for almost 10 hours. Since I only had quick cook barley, I waited until the last 2 hours to stir it into the pot. It was delicious! Both the lentils and barley turned out great. Next time, I will likely follow the recipe more closely, but I love being able to use what I have on hand.
When I make split pea soup in the crock pot, I use an immersion blender to make a creamy soup. With barley, this cannot be done. Will the soup have a creamy texture without the blender?
The soup is creamy but it’s not smooth because of the barley and ham.
How would you substitute chicken broth for this soup instead of bullion cubes? Would that decrease the water?
Hi Andreya – I’d probably use 2-3 cups chicken broth and the rest water.
Made this for dinner tonight and it was absolutely delicious!!! I even made one pot vegetarian and it was SO good! Thanks for the great recipe!
I cooked a Costco ham and cut up fresh pineapple which was added on top of the ham held in place with toothpicks after re-heating for 2 hours in the oven. Putting the cooked pineapple with ham flavor in the pot just seemed totally logical and adds a pinch of sweetness to the recipe. Also added soy sauce, cumin & sage. Used a 12oz beer for part of the liquid. In addition to the 1/2 cup of barley, farro peralto (like wheat berries) 1/2 cup added. Very hardy soup.
I’ve made this several times in the last year or so. Turns out the “barley” I’ve been using in it was actually wheat berries. (I am such a whole grain expert!) Just so you know, it turns out delicious with wheat berries, too!
Making it today with actual barley!
Delicious! Delicious! Delicious!
Oh yeah, just to clarify, I didn’t pre-cook the instant barley. I just dumped it in after 3 hrs of the soup cooking.
So, I tried it with the instant barley and thought I would post back my results. I made this the first time with the normal pearl barley and loved it, but when I went back to the store for more barley, I could only find the instant stuff. Not to be detered, I thought I would try it out. I followed the directions in the recipe as stated (ok, so maybe I was a little more liberal with the celery, carrots and onion,and I like using a layer of bacon [4 or 5 slices] instead of the ham–so heavenly!– but I used the exact amount of water, etc posted and followed the layering technique, minus the barley). Then I put my crockpot on high for 4 hours. After 3 hours of cooking, I went to dump the instant barley in and freaked out about the amount of water I was seeing in the crockpot, so I added 1.5 cups of uncooked instant barley. I let my slow cooker go on high for another 1 1/2 hrs and then checked. Everything was WELL cooked, in fact, maybe even on the slightly too mushy side, and ALL of the liquid had been soaked up by the barley and the peas. Thus, it became split pea mush, and it still tasted great, but I should not have freaked out. The next time, I think I would try maybe 3/4 c of instant barley, but I don’t think I would do more because it will soak up all of your liquid. Hope this helps anyone else who wants to use instant barley!
Just made this and the whole family loved it. Being so healthy and tasty, it will definitely be integrated in the regular meal rotation around here. Thanks!
Fabulous recipe! Have tried many pea soup recipes – this is the best I’ve ever had. The barley is a great addition – it tastes good and feels good on the tongue. For the ham I used leftovers from another of Mel’s recipes – Maple Brown Sugar Ham in the Slow Cooker. The sweet ham in the normally not sweet pea soup – FABULOUS! I keep all of my recipes on my computer: Now there’s a folder named Mel’s Recipes. I can’t stand the thought of mixing them up amongst all the others.
This was absolutely delicious! I researched a bunch of split pea recipes, and this was the BEST by far – I LOVED the barley addition especially. The only major change I made was to use 2 ham hocks instead of chopped ham. I think the smokiness of the ham hocks added a lot more yummy flavor. Maybe not as much meat, but it was still great!