Gordon Ramsay Pea And Ham Soup Recipe

Gordon Ramsay’s pea and ham soup is a slow-cooked split pea soup built on a smoked ham hock, with dried green peas simmered in the ham stock until soft, then blended smooth with shredded ham stirred back through. It takes about 5 hours total, but nearly all of that is hands-off simmering.

This recipe appears as “London Particular” in Gordon Ramsay’s Great British Pub Food, named after the thick fogs that used to blanket London during the industrial revolution. Ramsay writes that the soup “is typically made with boiled unsmoked gammon, but we prefer to use a smoked ham hock to give the soup an intense and smoky base flavour.”

The technique that makes this version work is cooking the peas in the strained ham stock rather than plain water. The stock has already pulled hours of smoky, meaty flavour out of the hock, so the peas absorb all of that as they soften. By the time you blend them, the ham flavour runs through every spoonful instead of sitting on top as chunks in a bland base.

FAQs

Why does Ramsay use smoked ham hock instead of unsmoked gammon?

He addresses this directly in the recipe. The traditional London Particular uses boiled unsmoked gammon, but Ramsay prefers smoked ham hock because it gives the stock a deeper, smokier base flavour that carries through the whole soup.

Unsmoked gammon produces a milder, more porky stock. Smoked hock adds a layer of complexity that you’d otherwise need bacon or smoked paprika to achieve. Since the split peas cook in this stock for nearly two hours, every bit of that smokiness gets absorbed into the soup itself rather than just the meat.

Why soak both the ham hock and the peas overnight?

The overnight soak serves a different purpose for each ingredient. For the ham hock, soaking draws out excess salt from the curing process. Without it, the stock can turn unpleasantly salty, and since the peas cook in that stock for hours, the saltiness would concentrate even further.

For the split peas, soaking softens them so they break down evenly during cooking. Unsoaked peas take much longer and often cook unevenly, leaving some mushy while others stay hard in the centre. The soak cuts the cooking time roughly in half and gives a smoother result when blended.

Why does he cook the peas in the ham stock instead of adding them with the hock?

Timing is the reason. The ham hock needs 2.5 to 3 hours to become tender enough to shred. Split peas need 1.5 to 2 hours. If you added them together at the start, the peas would be completely dissolved long before the ham was ready.

Cooking them separately in the strained stock also gives you a cleaner result. The vegetables from the hock poach get strained out, so the peas cook in pure ham-flavoured liquid without bits of soft carrot and celery muddying the texture. When you blend it, you get a smooth soup that tastes entirely of peas and ham.

How do you know when the soup is the right thickness?

This is a soup that thickens as it sits, so Ramsay builds in flexibility. If it’s too thick after blending, add a little boiling water. If it’s too thin, simmer it down until it reaches the consistency you want.

The target is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon but still pourable. It should sit in the bowl with body, not pool like a broth. Keep in mind it will thicken further as it cools, so take it off the heat when it’s slightly looser than your ideal. His leek and potato soup uses the same approach of adjusting consistency after blending.

Why fry the croutons in both butter and oil?

Butter gives the croutons flavour. Oil stops the butter from burning. Using both means you get that rich, toasty butteriness without the bread catching and turning bitter before it crisps up.

Ramsay heats the oil and butter together until the butter foams, then tosses the bread in that mixture for about 3 minutes. The foaming stage is important because it means the water in the butter has evaporated, so the bread fries rather than steams. The result is croutons that shatter when you bite them, which matters against a soup this thick and smooth.

Can you make this soup ahead of time?

This is one of the best soups to make in advance. The flavours deepen overnight as the smoky stock continues to meld with the peas. Ramsay makes the same point about his lentil soup from Bread Street Kitchen, noting that “it will be even better the following day as the flavours intensify and deepen.”

Reheat gently over medium heat, adding a splash of boiling water if it has thickened too much in the fridge. Make the croutons fresh just before serving because they lose their crunch within an hour. The soup itself keeps well in the fridge for 3 to 4 days and freezes for up to 3 months, though freeze it before adding the shredded ham back in for the best texture on reheating.