Delia Smith Pea and Ham Soup Recipe

Split peas, smoked bacon and ham stock make Delia Smith’s pea and ham soup for 6, which she calls the London Particular after the thick old “peasouper” fogs. The peas simmer for about an hour and a quarter with bacon, onion, celery and carrot browned in butter, then it’s blended and scattered with crisp bacon and croutons.

This version is in the winter chapter of The Delia Collection: Soup (2003), and How to Cook Book Three (2001) prints it too. Her Complete Cookery Course has the same soup under a plainer name, Thick Pea Soup.

She rates split peas of both colours highly for soup. In her guide to pulses they’re as full of flavour as whole dried peas, with no soaking needed, which is why this goes from bag to pan.

It comes out thick, smoky and comforting, with the crunch on top doing a lot of the work. If you like pulses with smoked bacon, her bacon and lentil soup is a chunkier pot that isn’t blended.

Delia Smith’s London Particular (Pea and Ham Soup)

Recipe by Anne Morgan

0.0 from 0 votes

Course: SoupsCuisine: BritishDifficulty: Easy

Servings

6

servings

Prep time

15

minutes

Cooking time

1

hour 

30

minutes

Calories

425

kcal

Thick and filling, with crisp bacon bits and croutons scattered over every bowl.

Ingredients

• For the soup:

• 2 litres (3½ pints) ham, bacon or vegetable stock

• 350g (12oz) yellow (or green) split peas, no need to soak

• 75g (3oz) butter

• 175g (6oz) smoked streaky bacon, rind removed, diced

• 1 medium onion, roughly chopped

• 1 celery stalk, chopped

• 1 large carrot, peeled and sliced

• salt and freshly milled black pepper

• To serve:

• 50g (2oz) crustless white bread, cut into 8mm (⅓in) cubes

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Directions

• Peas: Pour the stock into your largest saucepan, about 4.5 litres, and bring it just to simmering point. Stir in the split peas and simmer very gently for about 30 minutes.
• Vegetables: Meanwhile, melt 25g of the butter in a medium pan. Add 110g of the bacon with the onion, celery and carrot and cook over a medium heat for about 15 minutes, until soft and golden.
• Simmer: Tip the bacon and vegetables into the peas, season, cover and simmer very gently for a further 40 to 50 minutes.
• Crisp bacon: Meanwhile, fry the rest of the bacon in a dry frying pan until really crisp and lift it out. Add another 25g of butter and, once it foams, toss the bread cubes in it for about 5 minutes, until crisp.
• Blend: Let the soup cool a little, purée it in batches and pour it back into the pan. Check the seasoning, loosening it with a little more stock or water if it’s too thick.
• Serve: Just before serving, stir in the last 25g of butter, then ladle into bowls and scatter with the croutons and crisp bacon.

Notes

• If your stock comes from a boiled ham or bacon joint, it can be salty enough on its own, so I'd hold back the salt until the final taste.
• Leftovers set almost solid in the fridge. Loosen them with hot water as they reheat, and bring them right up to the boil.

FAQs

What’s different in her green split pea version?

Mainly the stock. Her 2001 printing uses green split peas and 2 litres of stock strained from a smoked bacon joint she boils for another recipe. Water tops it up if needed, and there’s a little more butter, 110g in all.

The Cookery Course Thick Pea Soup is simpler again. It has 4 thick rashers of bacon cooked in with the vegetables and 50g of butter, with croutons but no crisp bacon on top.

Can I make it with a ham hock?

You can, and it’s my own favourite way to get the stock. Simmer a ham hock in plenty of water for 2 to 3 hours, then use 2 litres of the liquid for the peas.

Shred the meat off the bone and stir it in after blending, so there’s real ham in every spoonful. Taste the stock first, as a hock can make it very salty.

Is there a 20-minute version?

There is. Her thick pea and bacon soup in Delia’s How to Cheat at Cooking (2008) takes about 20 minutes from start to finish. It uses a 538g tin of marrowfat peas and a 50g pack of ready-cooked crispy smoked bacon.

Spring onions and the outside leaves of a lettuce soften in a teaspoon of butter for 5 minutes. Then the peas, half the bacon and a tinful of stock simmer for 10 minutes before a stick blender goes in. It serves 2, or 4 as a starter, and she suggests spinach leaves instead of lettuce in winter.

Does she have a summer pea soup?

Yes, for summer. Her fresh shelled pea soup in The Delia Collection: Soup serves 4 and is dark green, with the flavours of peas à la française: peas, spring onions, lettuce and a rasher of unsmoked bacon.

It needs about 900g of peas in the pod, around 315g once shelled, simmered with young spinach and a teaspoon of sugar in 725ml of water for 10 to 15 minutes. Blended, it’s finished with mint, crème fraîche and a grating of nutmeg.