The soup looks amazing. I think we are going to make it for lunch tomorrow!

I remember a polish easter treat I had with a polish family that was just boiling a kielbasa for 2 days and then shaving fresh horseradish into the broth. Oddly, it was delicious. I'm sure your soup is better though, can't wait to try it!

Great!  Make sure you get “already cooked” or “smoked" kielbasa.  I used the turkey kielbasa which is really quite tasty and healthier than the real thing.  (When I was little, every Easter, my girlfriend’s grandfather would make and smoke his own kielbasa.  He had an out door fireplace where he did the smoking.  The entire neighborhood would smell like kielbasa!)

Hi Nicole, Turkey  kielbasa is really great in this soup!  I hope you like it.  I would like to also add that this soup freezes beautifully!  Cheers!

Suzie - "what ingredient should I add to keep my guests from having gastric problems?"

Simply add 1/4 tbsp of "magic". It's available in an imagination near you <grin> 

There's little you can do about it other than to not feed them. Some people have trouble with some foods, while others don't. It's unpredictable, and it's usually not the food's fault. You might want to read this treatment of the subject.

KGW, I agree, on occasion, sass is a good thing!  :)

It sounds as if the sugars were starting to ferment from the overly-long soaking, producing hydrogen sulfide, which smells strongly of rotten eggs. They aren't contaminated, but you might have some trouble getting people to eat them <grin>

Kathy is there anything I can add in place of the turkey kielbasa to make this soup vegan, yet still heavy on flavor?

I'm getting hungry just looking at the soup, I plan on making it later today. Good idea on the turkey instead of ham, I've read that turkey is much more healthy for you than ham is. I'm glad someone mentioned in the comments to make sure you have already cooked kielbasa, I missed that the first time through. I look forward to trying this.

i have soaked green split peas for24hrs. rinsed and cooked them 10 mins. fast boil, discard water .Re-fill and cooked for four hours and the peas are still not mushy. What is wrongnancy r

FOR THIS RECIPE - DO NOT SOAK THE SPLIT PEAS! 

Nancy, If you read the comment just a few above yours you will discover that someone else also had a lot of problems when they tried to soak split peas.  One does not need to soak split peas. 

(Dried beans are another story!)

FOR THIS RECIPE - DO NOT SOAK THE SPLIT PEAS! 

Charlene -
This is one of my favorite soups, too. I've made this recipe about 5 times since Kathy posted it, and every time I've done it slightly different, and every time it's been great.

The things I've done differently aren't earth-shaking. I've just traded meats and onions around. For meats, I've used skinned and skinless smoked sausage (keilbasa), ham, bacon, or Bac-Os (soy based). For onions I've used green onions, yellow, and Vidalia. I still haven't used the leeks she calls for, but I'm quite sure they'd be good, too.

Other than that, just follow her recipe and you can't miss. This is one delicious, basic, nutritious, and filling soup you can keep in your head forever.

How does one get split peas to dissolve without having to liquidize them?

Hi Everyone!
I have been away on vacation (without my computer!) and am just now catching up on this conversation.

Charlene, KGW is right, you can make all sorts of adjustments to this recipe and, no matter what, it is still fantastic!  I used leeks instead of onions just to show everyone how to cook with leeks.

Nancy as long as you keep cooking the split peas, with enough liquid, they will become totally smooth and will not require additional mashing, mushing, or pulverizing.

As you can tell by the photos, the way I make this soup it comes out very thick.  My husband likes really thick hearty soups - as do I!  You can alway add more broth to thin it down if you like.

Cheers,
Kathy

PS
KGW - you always do make me laugh!

Nancy -

Don't soak the peas, and don't boil them.

You might want to go back to the top of this page where the recipe is, and right next to the title of the column you'll see a link that says: Print Recipe Card. Print the recipe out, and take it to the kitchen with you for reference the next time you want to make this soup.

Since this is the second or third time this issue has come up, I decided to do a little research.

It seems there's a school of thought that says adding salt to pulses (beans, peas, lentils) early in cooking leaves them a little hard. Not everyone agrees, but enough do to make me wonder if it's true.

If it is, then here are some considerations for when making things like bean or pea soup.

If you're to cook in stock, as the split pea recipe calls for here, it might be better to cook in water, then add bouillon cubes later for flavor. Bouillon cubes are high in salt, so you  wouldn't want them in early. Also, if you have a water softener, your water is somewhat salted to start with, so you might want to get the water from before the softener, or buy a gallon of distilled water to cook with. Finally, if the recipe calls for cured meats like this one does, they're heavy in salt, too. Don't put them in until the end of the cooking time. Cured meats are already cooked anyway - all you're really doing is warming them up and leaching them a bit for flavor - so they don't need to be in the pot the whole time.

Kathy has a good article on pulses that you might also want to read.

To add smokey flavor but keep the recipe vegan use Liquid Smoke. Found near the BBQ sauce in the grocery store. 1 tsp should do it! Go easy on it!

I have some here, and the label says:

• Water
• Natural Mesquite Flavor
• Vinegar
• Molasses
• Caramel Color

Your guess is as good as mine what "Natural Mequite Flavor" is.

The stuff is sorta like food coloring, though. You don't want to use much of it - it's potent. A few drops goes a long way. If you apply it like the label says - sprinkling it (like soy sauce?) - you'll be burping it up all night. Not that it makes you burp any more than usual, but you'll definitely notice how often "usual" is <grin>

MESDAMES!  WHAT IS THE SENSE OF TAKING perfectly good peas, go to all  the trouble of processing them to take the water out, package them and then have cooks take hours to force the water back in ? For any pea soup recipe you favor, just use frozen fresh peas, and to cut the bright green color cook up two or three carrots, add them to the  broth and then puree the whole mess. Then add whatever smoked or smoky meat you want and heat through. The carrot adds its own bit of extra flavor and nutrients. BTW, I am French-Canadian, so I know  SOUPE AUX POIS  from ditch-water! This way takes much less time, and if you add a bit of nice Madras curry (to taste), you add another dimension to pea soup. BON APPETIT and CHACUN A SON GOUT!