Cozy Vegan Split Pea Soup
Ingredients:
1-3 Red or Yellow Onions
1 Bulb Garlic
1 Celery Stalk (Note that people often use “stalk” to refer to one stick of celery but the individual sticks are called “ribs” and the stalk is the whole bunch or bundle of connected ribs)
5-10 Small or 2-5 Large Potatoes of Choice
2-10 Whole Carrots (Rainbow carrots have more nutrients if you can find them)
1-2 Cups of Split Peas (Green or Golden)
Fresh or Dried Rosemary (a Poultry seasoning blend would also work)
1-3 Bay Leaves
2-3 Cups of Vegetable Broth (I use homemade stock)
Salt & Pepper to taste
Olive Oil
Note: I offer variable amounts here because I think it’s important to work with what you have, your budget and the amount of food you are trying to make. The soup will turn out just as good, if slightly different depending on the amounts of each ingredient you use. This approach a great jumping off point for learning to freestyle in cooking.
Instructions:
Start with a big soup pot and drizzle olive oil until the whole surface is lightly covered.
Roughly chop carrots, onion, celery and garlic and add them to the pot on medium heat. Cover with lid. You can save the scraps from these ingredients in the freezer and use them to make your own vegetable stock next time you make soup!
While the mirepoix (fancy French word for this soup base) is simmering, Chop up your rosemary (if fresh) as finely as you can. Don’t stress but the immersion blender often misses the small rosemary needles and getting whole pieces can mess with the texture of the soup.
Add the rosemary and a healthy amount of salt and pepper to the pot and let it simmer until you can smush the carrot chunks on the side of the pot easily with a spoon.
Rough chop your potatoes (if you get the really small kind you can just leave them in whole). Add your potatoes and split peas (you may want to wash those first by putting them in a mesh strainer and rinsing them) to the pot. Pour in enough vegetable broth/stock just enough to cover all the ingredients with liquid.
Throw in your bay leaves and put the lid on that bad boy. Put the temp on medium low and set a timer for 30 minutes.
When the potatoes are smushable as well take an immersion blender (or a potato masher if you don’t have one) and SMUSH all the ingredients until it reaches a desired consistency. I personally like it when about 2/3 of the soup is pureed and 1/3 is still chunky. You can skip this step entirely if you like a really chunky soup.
Let the soup simmer on low for another 10-20 minutes to let the flavors combine.
Serve! I paired mine with a homemade rosemary garlic bread (recipe coming soon). If you want to get really fancy you can add a few spoonfuls of maple syrup and/or liquid smoke to give it more of a maple roast ham taste or even add some tempeh bacon or crispy mushrooms on top.
