Split peas

One US cup of split peas weighs 196 grams (6.9 ounces), measured dry, uncooked. Going the other way, 100 grams is about 0.51 cups.

Also called green split peas, split green peas, dried split peas, dry split peas.

Dried beans, lentils and peas compared: cup weights side by side, the source behind each, and why they differ.

A cup of dry green split peas weighs 196 g (6.9 oz), and a cup of cooked split peas also weighs about 196 g. USDA, Bob's Red Mill's label and Oregon State University's Food Hero fall within 9% of each other, so this entry publishes USDA's figure.

Split peas are field peas (Pisum sativum) left to ripen fully, dried, hulled and split along the natural seam into two halves. Green split peas are the usual US kind, the base of split pea soup; yellow split peas come from yellow varieties. Unlike whole dried peas they need no soaking, and they cook down to a thick purée in about an hour.

USDA SR Legacy "Peas, green, split, mature seeds, raw" (FDC 172428) gives 1 cup = 196 g at 8.7% water. Bob's Red Mill prints 1/4 cup as 50 g on its 29-ounce bag of green split peas, with about 16 servings, which works out to 200 g a cup and fits the bag. Food Hero, Oregon State University Extension's recipe site, gives 1 pound as 2 1/8 cups, 213 g a cup. The three are 8.9% apart, inside the 10% tolerance. America's Test Kitchen is split: "1 pound green split peas (about 2 cups)" in its Split Pea and Ham Soup and "1 pound split peas (2 ½ cups)" in a ham soup with caraway, so neither enters as a figure. The USDA Food Buying Guide has no split pea row.

The physical check: splitting turns a round pea into two half-spheres. Their flat faces can lie against each other, which lets more pea into the cup, while their edges catch and leave gaps. The measurements put a cup of split peas just above lentils (192 g), another flat seed of similar size. At 196 g the cup is 0.83 g/mL. The heavier figures, Food Hero's 213 g and America's Test Kitchen's 2 cups to the pound, point to cups where the peas have settled; fill the cup loosely and level it to match USDA's figure.

Cooked: USDA's boiled split peas (FDC 172429) weigh 196 g per cup, and Health Canada's boiled split peas 145 g per 175 mL, also 196 g a cup. A cooked cup weighs the same as a dry one because cooked split peas are a soft, nearly airless mash, and the water that swelled them has filled every gap. USA Pulses gives 1/2 cup dry as 1 cup cooked; Food Hero gives 1 cup dry as 2 to 2 1/2 cups cooked.

Practical guidance: use 196 g per cup of dry split peas, 98 g per half cup and 49 g per quarter cup; a pound holds about 2 1/3 cups. Use 196 g per cup of cooked split peas. Rinse and pick them over; no soaking is needed. No source found weighs yellow split peas separately, so the green figure is the best guide for them too.