With a new year right around the corner, just about everyone I know is ready to shift their focus away from cookies and re-prioritize healthy eating. We all know what we should be eating – whole grains, lean proteins, leafy greens… you know the drill. So what’s stopping us?
Turns out: TIME! In fact, I recently polled my Facebook fans asking, “What is your biggest challenge when it comes to healthy cooking?” Two answers came back loud and clear: lack of time and a lack of easy (and delicious!) slow cooker recipes.
Ask and you shall receive, my friends. Slow Cooker Split Pea Soup with Bacon comes together in a matter of minutes and pretty much cooks itself.
Want to save even more time? Make a double batch and save for busy weekday lunches or pop in the freezer for another day.
By taking a few minutes in the beginning of your day to throw this soup in the slow cooker, you will be rewarded with a hearty, satisfying soup packed with the protein, fiber and nutrients your body craves. No red and green sprinkles required.
Your spoon is waiting.
- Serves: 6
- Serving size: 16oz
- Calories: 157
- Fat: 2g
- Saturated fat: .3g
- Unsaturated fat: 1.7g
- Carbohydrates: 22.5g
- Sugar: 3.3g
- Sodium: 149mg
- Fiber: 4.1g
- Protein: 11.1g
- Cholesterol: 3mg
- 2 slices bacon – sliced into thin strips
- 1 medium onion – diced
- 2 celery stalks – diced
- 2 carrots – diced
- 1 cup split green peas (uncooked)
- 1 teaspoon thyme
- 2 bay leaves
- 4 cups chicken broth – low sodium
- 4 cups water
- salt and pepper to taste
- ¼ cup chopped fresh parsley – optional garnish
- Cook the bacon strips in a medium pan over medium-high heat until crispy and browned; set aside on a paper towel lined plate.
- In a slow cooker, add all remaining ingredients including the cooked bacon.
- Heat on Low for 8 hours or High for 4 hours. Season with salt and pepper to taste and garnish with fresh parsley before serving.
{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }
Any recommendations for a substitute for the bacon if we can’t eat bacon?
Assuming you can’t eat Canadian bacon or ham, I would just skip it and add more salt. Another idea for smokiness without pork would be to add smoked paprika. Hope that helps!!
One more thing – turkey bacon would be great!
Awesome….was thinking that New Years Day would be a good day for a healthy, hearty soup. One that involved bacon just pushes it over the top. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you so much – the bacon makes the soup!! Perfect smokey, salty balance to the green peas. Enjoy and Happy New Year!
This looks insanely delicious. And healthy too! And hearty. I could add many “ands” to this one.
Thanks so much Joanne – I love letting the slow cooker do all the work!! Happy New Year friend!
Adding this to my list to try! I have the lentil with bacon soup in queue, too! Cheers, friend…here’s to a wonderful 2013!
Happy New Year Liz!
I love the idea of slow cooker split pea – I don’t do pork but I am going to print this and make with turkey bacon!
Making this today, burned the bacon, will search for paprika if needed. Thanks Liz!
Yum!!! Let me know how it turns out!!! Enjoy sista!
So, I had this in my slow cooker (double batch) for 4 hours on high. Everything came together beautifully, used veggie broth, pearl onions, thyme made it super tasty. Only problem? HARD PEAS. Left it on overnight on low (adding another 12ish hours). HARD PEAS. Brought to work today, heated up. HARD PEAS. I used a potato masher, but those darn peas are not budging! Any ideas? Put on the stove? Use immersion blender?
Umm….That’s bizarre. I normally don’t even soak mine. Is it a brand you’ve used before? Was there enough liquid? I can’t imagine how on earth they wouldn’t soften after 4 hours on high let alone 12 hours overnight!! So sorry – the only thing I can say is perhaps they were really old peas? So sorry.
I found this recipe and was so excited to try it. I love Split Pea Soup! I currently have this in my crock-pot with only one more hour of cooking time to go. It smells wonderful in my house; however, I am getting a little worried. The soup looks VERY watery! I followed the recipe to the T, and it looks watery. I even gave it a little stir, thinking the peas maybe just needed to move around a bit.. but still watery! Is this how your recipe is supposed to be?? I am used to split pea soup being on the thicker side. I’ve actually never seen watery split pea soup. I just hope it tastes good..
Hi Jennifer – How did it turn out?? Mine got really thick over time and if it’s not thick enough, just continue to cook it down and more of the liquid will evaporate. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!!
The flavor is really good, but it did stay very watery. I even let it cook a little longer, and turned it up to high. =( Not sure what happened because I followed the directions exactly as they were listed. The important thing is that it tastes good!
Oh no!! I’m so sorry. I will say, it’s not supposed to be thick like it is out of a can. It’s definitely a bit more brothy. But still I’m sorry it wasn’t what you were looking for. I’ll make a note to the recipe to reduce the liquid if you want a thicker soup. Thank you for your helpful feedback!