Split Pea Soup!
Apr. 20th, 2009 10:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ghost_lingering in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
omnomnomThis is a green and yellow split pea soup that I've been making a fair amount recently. Vegan/vegetarian, with an optional non-vegetarian variation.
Ingredients:
olive oil
1-2 red onion(s), chopped
3-5 garlic cloves, chopped
part of a rutabaga, chopped (~1 cup) [optional, I guess, but rutabaga is AWESOME so I don't know why you'd want to leave it out! *g*]
3-4 carrots, chopped
3-4 potatoes, choped
2 cups green split peas
1 cup yellow split peas
6+ cups of veggie stock &/or water (7-8 cups makes a pretty thick soup/stew, which is how *I* like it. Add more for a thinner soup or if you're not serving it as a side dish not a main dish)
[totally optional for a non-vegan-using-up-leftovers-soup: ham bone]
salt
ground pepper
thyme
basil
oregano
bay leaves
[My Rather Idiosyncratic] Directions:
Take a large pot and saute the onions and garlic in the olive oil. Once they're all sauted and translucent and such, add peas and water/stock [and totally optional ham bone, if desired]. I add spices, and I turn the heat up and let it start to boil as I chop the rest of the ingredients and add them as I finish chopping. Then cover, turn the heat down a bit, and remember to stir and taste every once and a while to check seasoning. I don't actually know how much of the spices I put in as I just sort of toss some in if I think it needs more. I do a lot of tasting as it's slowly turning itself to mush. This time around I used 4 1/2 bay leaves (this is probably a function of my bay leaves being old—I'd start with one or two and then add more as you go, if nessisary) (also, re: bay leaves, I just sort of toss them in and forget about them, and then if I get a bay leaf in a bowl of soup I eat around it—if you want to be proper, fish out the leaves before serving), a LOT of thyme (1 tbsp? more? less?), maybe about a 1/4 tsp of oregano, less basil than thyme (but still quite a bit of basil), loads of pepper (I probably use more pepper than thyme? I really like pepper), and salt—the peas will absorb quite a lot of the salt, so add it bits at a time, as it cooks, taste test it, and don't add it all right at the very end as you take it off the heat.
[A quick note for the differences between the vegan version and the ham version—they both taste great. I usually make it w/o the ham. I just stuck the 'you can put a ham bone in' because a) you can, b) I've done it, and c) ham is used in a lot of split pea soup recipes and sometimes it's nice to have a point of comparison. Anyway, if you don't use it you just have to make sure to add a bit more salt.]
I don't really know how long it takes me to make this (despite having made it a few nights ago),…but, we'll say two hours total for prep and to let the peas cook to mush. The yellow split peas take longer to cook than the green split peas, so if you wait for them to turn to mush as well, you'll probably take even longer. I let the green peas go to mush, and take it off while the yellow peas are soft but still more or less intact.
Ingredients:
olive oil
1-2 red onion(s), chopped
3-5 garlic cloves, chopped
part of a rutabaga, chopped (~1 cup) [optional, I guess, but rutabaga is AWESOME so I don't know why you'd want to leave it out! *g*]
3-4 carrots, chopped
3-4 potatoes, choped
2 cups green split peas
1 cup yellow split peas
6+ cups of veggie stock &/or water (7-8 cups makes a pretty thick soup/stew, which is how *I* like it. Add more for a thinner soup or if you're not serving it as a side dish not a main dish)
[totally optional for a non-vegan-using-up-leftovers-soup: ham bone]
salt
ground pepper
thyme
basil
oregano
bay leaves
[My Rather Idiosyncratic] Directions:
Take a large pot and saute the onions and garlic in the olive oil. Once they're all sauted and translucent and such, add peas and water/stock [and totally optional ham bone, if desired]. I add spices, and I turn the heat up and let it start to boil as I chop the rest of the ingredients and add them as I finish chopping. Then cover, turn the heat down a bit, and remember to stir and taste every once and a while to check seasoning. I don't actually know how much of the spices I put in as I just sort of toss some in if I think it needs more. I do a lot of tasting as it's slowly turning itself to mush. This time around I used 4 1/2 bay leaves (this is probably a function of my bay leaves being old—I'd start with one or two and then add more as you go, if nessisary) (also, re: bay leaves, I just sort of toss them in and forget about them, and then if I get a bay leaf in a bowl of soup I eat around it—if you want to be proper, fish out the leaves before serving), a LOT of thyme (1 tbsp? more? less?), maybe about a 1/4 tsp of oregano, less basil than thyme (but still quite a bit of basil), loads of pepper (I probably use more pepper than thyme? I really like pepper), and salt—the peas will absorb quite a lot of the salt, so add it bits at a time, as it cooks, taste test it, and don't add it all right at the very end as you take it off the heat.
[A quick note for the differences between the vegan version and the ham version—they both taste great. I usually make it w/o the ham. I just stuck the 'you can put a ham bone in' because a) you can, b) I've done it, and c) ham is used in a lot of split pea soup recipes and sometimes it's nice to have a point of comparison. Anyway, if you don't use it you just have to make sure to add a bit more salt.]
I don't really know how long it takes me to make this (despite having made it a few nights ago),…but, we'll say two hours total for prep and to let the peas cook to mush. The yellow split peas take longer to cook than the green split peas, so if you wait for them to turn to mush as well, you'll probably take even longer. I let the green peas go to mush, and take it off while the yellow peas are soft but still more or less intact.
no subject
on 2009-04-21 02:12 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2009-04-22 02:37 am (UTC)no subject
on 2016-11-20 05:48 pm (UTC)Variations that I tend to do (especially since I rarely have rutabaga on hand):
- chopped turnip or kohlrabi in lieu of rutabaga
- 1-2 stalks of chopped celery
I also sauté the carrots, celery, and herbs (and kohlrabi, if I'm using that) in with the onions and garlic at the start, since carrots and kohlrabi are a little harder / longer to cook than potatoes & split peas, and more generally aromatics do more if you give them a little quick-start like that before dumping the water/stock on top.
And if I'm making non-vegetarian version, I dump in a kielbasa sausage instead of ham.
Anyway, thank you very much for sharing this - pea soup has always been my favorite soup since I was very small, and adding in potatoes and the like was revolutionary to me the first time I tried this recipe: thank you! <3