Bake your bone-in ham according to the instructions on the packaging, or from the guide at recipetips.com. For the best results, enjoy your ham the first day you cook it and get your ham bone broth started (instructions below) so that the following day you can make this recipe with your rich and nourishing bone broth.
Save at least 1 pound of cooked meat to make your soup with. Cut up the leftovers into small cubes and put in the fridge to store until the following day.
Put your ham bone in a crock pot filled with water. Make sure the ham bone is covered but don’t fill it up too full – leave about an inch on top so that when it comes to a soft boil, it wont start bubbling over. This is especially important if you are going to be slow cooking it overnight.
Once your bone broth is complete, unplug your slow cooker and let cool for around 30 minutes.
Top a large mixing bowl with a large strainer and carefully pour through the broth and bones.
Once the broth fully drains through, you can get rid of your bones (unless you want to boil them again for a second batch of bone broth!).
If you are not ready to make your soup, strain your bone broth into mason jars and store in the fridge.
Once you are ready to make your soup, add 2 liters of bone broth into a large pot on the stove. If you don’t have the full 2 liters of broth, top it up with extra water (this all depends on the size of your crockpot and how much broth it yields!).
Chop up your carrots and celery into small cubes.
Add green split peas, carrots, celery, bay leaves, thyme and garlic powder into the broth and bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce heat to a simmer.
Simmer, stirring often until the soup is starting to thicken up. Roughly 45 minutes.
Add your chopped up ham and simmer for another 45 minutes or so, stirring often.
At any time you can remove the soup from the stove if you are happy with the consistency, but I highly recommend simmering for the full time as it makes a very thick and creamy soup. It should look something like this.
Remove the bay leaves and serve.
If you are doing this meal for meal prep, divvy out into 6 containers and store in the fridge or the freezer. If you store it in the fridge, eat within 1 week or less.