TracyFood

Recipe: Hearty Split Pea Soup 1 March 2007 7:26 pm

Posted by Tracy in : seasonality, kitchen gear, vegan, soup, vegetarian, recipes, cooking , trackback

So as previously mentioned, on Monday I got myself a little present — specifically, an 8-inch chef’s knife from Victorinox (the cutlery end of Swiss Army). I love it. I love it so much that when it came time to make Monday’s dinner — split pea soup, on account of the crappy rainy-cold weather that continues to this day — I had so much fun doing the vegetable prep that I got completely out of control, and ended up making about twice what I needed. So, of course, I cooked more split peas and ended up with an entire metric boatload of very tasty soup, which has unfortunately been coming in handy all over the place since the weather has not particularly improved this week, dangit. (I am so ready for this winter to be over.) Then I halved the recipe for TracyFood publication purposes, because I hope that wherever you are, you don’t need a whole week’s worth of warming winter food. Shweesh.

What You Need (Ingredients and Equipment)

2 cups split peas
2 bay leaves
1 onion
1-2 carrots
2-3 stalks celery
2 cloves garlic
olive oil
vegetable stock or water
1 small sweet potato
1 potato (optional)
1/4 tsp ground mustard
1 tsp ground cumin
salt and pepper
big stockpot
smaller pot or frying pan

What You Do (Directions)

Rinse the split peas; put them in the large soup/stock pot along with the bay leaf and add enough stock or water to cover them by at least 2 inches. Bring to a boil, then lower heat to a simmer.
Meanwhile, dice all your vegetables, starting with the onion, so you can put a smallish handful of diced onion in with the peas to season them as they cook. (You can also add half of the garlic when it’s pressed or minced.)
Heat a tablespoon or two of olive oil in the frying pan or smaller pot over medium heat, and sauté the remaining onion and garlic, carrots, and celery, stirring occasionally, until the onion is translucent and the other vegetables are starting to wilt, maybe 5-10 minutes. Add the diced sweet potatoes (and potato, if using). The other vegetables should have released enough water to start the potato and sweet potato cooking, but you can always add a little to the pan if you’re worried about stuff sticking.
Check your split peas; they may have released a lot of scummy foam while cooking, which you should feel free to skim off if it grosses you out, or stir back in if you’re feeling lazy. By now they should have expanded and maybe even started to soften a little, and you may need to add some more water or stock, just enough so they have room to move around while they’re cooking. While you’re at it, mix in the sautéed veggies from the other pan, and add the ground mustard and cumin. (It was at this point in Monday’s cooking adventure that I realized I had made way too many veggies and would need to cook more peas. Ooops!)
Cook the soup 10-20 more minutes, until the potatoes and sweet potatoes are tender, and the split peas are done (many of them will even dissolve and thicken up the soup quite nicely, so frequent stirring will be important, especially towards the end). Add stock or water to thin it to your preferred consistency, and season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve hot.

Makes 4-6 servings of very hearty vegan soup (unless you used meat stock, in which case you’re going to wish you’d used a recipe that included ham) in less than an hour, unless your split peas are really slow and uncooperative. Leftovers reheat wonderfully well (just use gentle heat and stir frequently, because a soup this thick is just dying to stick to the bottom of the pan and burn).

Someday this winter’s gonna end…