VeganMoFo Day 15 - Pea Soup

Hot soup for a cool day. The storms that blew through here finally brought lower temps with it, so I got a chance to make this family favorite for lunch.

I have so many good recipes for this soup, but in keeping with my theme, I'm using Ann Esselstyn's this time:

Split Pea Soup
This is one of my favorites. I love its thickness but make it as thin as you wish by adding extra water. - Ann Esselstyn

3 cups dry split peas
7 cups of water or more as needed (8 in the book)
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon dry mustard
2 cups minced onions (about 2)  (one in book)
4 to 5 medium garlic cloves, crushed
3 stalks celery, minced
3 medium carrots, sliced or diced
3 small potatoes  (5 in the book)
Lots of freshly ground black pepper
3 to 4 tablespoons red wine or balsamic vinegar  (4 to 5 in the book)
l ripe tomato diced
Lots chopped cilantro or parsley

1. Place split peas, water, bay leaf and mustard in a heavy pot. Bring to a boil, lower heat as much as possible, and simmer, partially covered for about 20 minutes.

2. Add onions, garlic, celery, carrots, and potatoes. Partially cover, and leave it to simmer gently for about 40 minutes more with occasional stirring. Add more water if it looks too thick.

3. Add black pepper and vinegar to taste and serve topped with diced tomatoes and minced cilantro/ parsley or just mix the tomatoes and cilantro into the soup.

Tip: To make this soup quickly, use a pressure cooker. Brown onions in the cooker, add other ingredients, then turn to high and cook for 8 minutes. 

For an amazingly delicious variation, combine everything through carrots. Do not add potatoes. Cook until dry peas have completely softened and lost their shape. Transfer some of the soup to a blender and slowly add 16 ounces frozen peas (or use an immersible blender, adding the frozen peas to the pot). Return to pot and heat. Add pepper and more water, if desired.


Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease
Caldwell Esselstyn, MD and Ann Crile Esselstyn
page 198
AND
http://www.meetup.com/Dr-Es-Vegan-No-Oil-Diet-Cleveland-Akron-Ohio/pages/Recipes_by_Ann_Crile_Esselstyn/

Thick is right! Notice this uses a pound and a half of peas instead of the usual 1 pound (2 cups). Also notice the recipe says in a few places ". . . in the book." This is because I copied the recipe from that web page of recipes in the MeetUp site, then compared it to what the book says. I'm using the book's amounts for the water and potatoes, the book's amount for vinegar.

Other changes:
I skipped the bay leaf.

Instead of fresh onions I used frozen.

Instead of fresh celery I used dried from Spices, Etc. I've been using dried vegetables from here for years and decided after last week's fiasco I'll use them in these recipes again, just as I would if making this when it wasn't for VeganMoFo.

Yukon Gold potatoes are what I bought this week so that's what I'm using here.

I always break up my pea soups with an immersion blender, and this one is no different. Neither of us likes the chunkiness of unblended pea soup. 

And my final changes, instead of a fresh diced tomato, I'm using a can of no-salt added petite diced. It's mostly being used as a garnish and not as part of the soup itself. Same with the parsley. I sprinkled some dried on the top, and added some frozen peas as garnish.

This potful will serve us well for the entire weekend for lunches. If hubby needs something more, I have plenty of whole wheat bread he can dunk in it.