Very good base recipe. I personally cook my leftover hambone (with meat attached) in a crock pot (with water to cover) on low overnight. I then pour this broth (through a fine mesh strainer) into a large bowl or pot, refrigerate until cold & then skim any hardened fat off the top. After the ham bone cools, I remove all useable meat. I simmer the rinsed/cleaned split peas in the defatted ham broth. I add a few chopped red potatoes, a bay leaf or two and a few dashes of liquid smoke. I don't add carrots or reserved ham until the last hour or two of simmering to prevent mushy carrots or stringy ham. I like to add fresh rosemary during the initial cooking process. Of course you can add or detract whatever spices/herbs and I added a tsp of McCormicks Carribean Jerk Seasoning to bring about some more spice/earthiness to this soup. I also added a can of evap milk at the end for super richness. Great recipe you can alter to your own tastes! A splash of lemon or lime juice added right before serving gives the soup a kick as well.

I put my ham bone in my 7 quart crock pot right after supper and simmered it over night. I added everything else in the morning except the peas and also added some basil oregano and thyme as well as some chopped celery then added the peas after lunch. We went out for our boxing day shopping and had a great soup for supper that tasted just like my moms. Thanks for a great recipe.

Simmering overnight makes for a rich stock but don't forget to simmer with chopped onion, carrots and celery, discarding them upon straining the stock. Next time I plan to use about half the amount of pepper - it was a bit too spicy. Also because I like my soup thick I used 2 lbs of split peas instead of 1 lb.

I added about 2 cups of cubed potatoes to this recipe. I put them in the pot about 30 minutes before it was completely done. They were cooked just right and were an excellent addition to the recipe. I also added a bit of salt and extra freshly-ground black pepper. I will certainly make this soup again!

I had lots of broth when I cooked the bone and ham, so I used 2 20-oz packages of split peas, 2 onions and 2 carrots (that was about a cup of carrots). I sautéed the onion and carrots together in a little bit of olive oil and added them to the broth once I removed the fat from cooling it all night and heated it up. I threw in the peas, and the ham, and because I had used left over honey-baked ham, I added a dash of Worcestershire sauce a teaspoon of thyme, a dash of Cholula hot sauce and 3 bay leaves to cut the sweetness a little. I heated it up a little bit, but had to stop due to unexpected company. Today I started it back and put it on low on the stove and left for about an hour and a half. Well, luck was with me, because I accidentally have hit the button on the stove and it was on High the whole time I was gone! I thought for sure the peas would be stuck to the bottom of the pot – but all that happened was the peas broke down and the soup was done! I did run the immersion blender around a little just to make sure most of it was liquidated. I can’t believe how lucky I was, and also because this soup is GREAT. Thanks for a great recipe!

Great done in crock pot!

This was by far the best split pea soup I've ever made! I followed the recipe to the letter, which I never do, and I wouldn't change a thing!

I like my soup a little thicker, so I added an extra half bag of peas, and also added 2 diced potatoes 15 min after the carrots. Reduce the pepper to one teaspoon and this is still quite peppery. Great recipe!

This recipe has been updated to include 1 cup chopped carrots in the ingredient list.

This came out good. I added the carrots about 15 minutes till the end to ensure they were not mushey.