Split Pea, Lentil and Bean Soups Worth Making Twice

A bag of dried split peas costs less than a latte and feeds six people. That math is most of the reason these three soups stay in my rotation from October through March. I make the split pea one every time I have a ham bone, the lentil one when I forgot to plan dinner, and the white bean one when the pantry is down to cans.

All three taste better the next day, which is the real argument for making them. The starch keeps softening, the salt settles in, and what was fine on Tuesday is genuinely good on Wednesday.

Smoky split pea soup with ham

Prep 15 minutes. Cook 1 hour 15 minutes. Total 1 hour 30 minutes. Serves 6.

Split peas need no soaking and no babysitting, but they do need a full simmer. Pull them off the heat too early and you get grainy soup that never recovers.

• 2 tablespoons olive oil or butter
• 1 large yellow onion, diced
• 2 medium carrots, diced
• 2 celery stalks, diced
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 pound dried green split peas, rinsed and picked over
• 1 smoked ham hock (about 1 pound), or 2 cups diced cooked ham
• 8 cups water or low-sodium chicken broth
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon salt, plus more at the end
• 1 to 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar

1. Heat the oil in a heavy 6-quart pot over medium. Cook the onion, carrot and celery for 8 to 10 minutes, until the onion is soft and translucent. Don’t rush this part; it’s where the sweetness comes from.
2. Stir in the garlic and thyme and cook 1 minute more.
3. Add the split peas, ham hock, water or broth, bay leaves, pepper and 1 teaspoon salt. Bring to a boil, then drop the heat so the surface barely moves.
4. Simmer partially covered for 60 to 75 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes or so and scraping the bottom. Split peas sink and scorch if you ignore them.
5. Lift out the ham hock and let it cool enough to handle. Pull the meat off, chop it, and discard the skin, fat and bone. Stir the meat back in.
6. Fish out the bay leaves. For a smoother soup, blend about 2 cups and stir it back in, or use an immersion blender in short pulses. I leave mine chunky.
7. Add the vinegar, then taste and salt again. It will probably need another 1/2 to 1 teaspoon, more if you used water instead of broth.

If the soup is thicker than you want, thin it with hot broth a half cup at a time. It will thicken again in the fridge no matter what you do.

Lentil soup with tomato and greens

Prep 10 minutes. Cook 40 minutes. Total 50 minutes. Serves 6.

This is my no-plan dinner. Brown or green lentils hold their shape and cook in about half an hour, so the whole thing lands on the table faster than most braises get going.

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 yellow onion, diced
• 2 carrots, diced
• 2 celery stalks, diced
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1 1/2 cups brown or green lentils, rinsed
• 1 can (14.5 ounces) diced tomatoes with their juice
• 7 cups vegetable or chicken broth
• 1 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
• 2 packed cups chopped kale or baby spinach
• Juice of half a lemon

Soften the onion, carrot and celery in the oil over medium heat for about 8 minutes, then add the garlic, cumin and paprika for a minute. Stir in the tomato paste and let it darken for another minute against the bottom of the pot. That step is worth the two minutes it costs.

Add the lentils, tomatoes, broth and salt. Bring to a boil, lower to a simmer, and cook uncovered for 25 to 35 minutes, until the lentils are tender but still whole. Stir in the kale and cook 5 minutes more, or stir in spinach and turn off the heat. Finish with the lemon juice off the heat, taste, and adjust the salt.

Red lentils behave differently. They collapse in 15 to 20 minutes into something closer to a puree, which is lovely with cumin and a swirl of yogurt but will never give you a bowl with distinct lentils in it. Use them on purpose, not as a substitute.

White bean soup from the pantry

Prep 10 minutes. Cook 30 minutes. Total 40 minutes. Serves 4 to 6.

Three cans of beans, a head of greens and good olive oil. I make this the week before grocery day.

• 3 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for serving
• 1 yellow onion, diced
• 4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary, or 1/2 teaspoon dried
• Pinch of red pepper flakes
• 3 cans (15 ounces each) cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
• 4 cups chicken or vegetable broth
• A Parmesan rind, if you have one
• 3 packed cups chopped escarole, kale or chard
• Salt, black pepper and a squeeze of lemon

Cook the onion in the oil over medium heat until soft, 6 to 8 minutes, then add the garlic, rosemary and pepper flakes for 30 seconds. Add the beans, broth and Parmesan rind, bring to a simmer, and mash about a cup of the beans against the side of the pot with a wooden spoon. That’s what makes the broth creamy without cream. Simmer 15 minutes, add the greens, and cook until they’re tender, 5 to 10 minutes depending on how sturdy they are. Remove the rind, season, and pour a little raw olive oil over each bowl.

From dried beans, soak 1 pound of cannellini overnight in salted water, drain, and simmer in 8 cups of fresh water with the aromatics for 1 to 1 1/2 hours before you add anything acidic. Beans that have sat in your pantry for two years may never soften, and no amount of extra time fixes that.

Soak and simmer times at a glance

Where these soups go wrong

Scorching is the most common problem, and it happens at the bottom of the pot where you can’t see it. Thin-bottomed pots and split peas are a bad pair. Use the heaviest pot you own, keep the heat low enough that bubbles only break in one or two spots, and stir all the way across the bottom every 15 minutes.

The second issue is acid added too early. Tomatoes, vinegar and lemon juice keep bean skins firm, so a soup that should have been creamy at the hour mark is still chalky at ninety minutes. Lentils and split peas don’t care much, which is why canned tomatoes go in at the start of the lentil soup. Dried beans care a lot. Hold the acid until they’re tender.

Salt is the opposite of what you’ve probably heard. Salting the soaking water and the cooking liquid seasons the beans all the way through and does not toughen them. What toughens beans is age and hard water. What finally makes a flat pot of legumes taste finished is a teaspoon of vinegar or a squeeze of lemon right at the end, off the heat.

Swaps that hold up

Smoked turkey wings or a leftover ham bone both work in place of the ham hock, and a quarter teaspoon of smoked paprika plus a splash of soy sauce gets a meatless split pea soup most of the way there. Yellow split peas can replace green one for one, though they taste milder. For the lentil soup, a cup of cooked rice or small pasta stirred in at the end turns it into a heavier dinner, but add it to individual bowls rather than the pot or it drinks all your broth overnight. Canned chickpeas work in the white bean soup; black beans do not, they muddy the color and fight the rosemary.

Storing, freezing and reheating

Cool the pot quickly, ideally by transferring the soup to shallow containers rather than leaving the full pot on the stove. Get it into the fridge within two hours. All three keep 4 days refrigerated. Reheat on the stove over medium-low, stirring, until it’s steaming throughout and reaches 165°F if it contains ham.

Split pea and lentil soup freeze beautifully for up to 3 months. White bean soup freezes well too, but add the greens fresh when you reheat instead of freezing them in. Freeze flat in zip-top bags, leave an inch of headroom, and thaw overnight in the fridge. Every one of them will be too thick coming out of the freezer, so keep a cup of broth on hand and stir it in as the soup loosens.