Simple Yellow Split Pea Soup

Here's another from Mary McDougall and the McDougall newsletter article Cheap Recipes. It's the Simple Split Pea Soup recipe that I changed ingredients around to make Yellow Split Pea Soup.



Simple Split Pea Soup

Preparation Time:  15 minutes
Cooking Time:  1 hour
Resting Time:  15 minutes (optional for thickening)
Servings:  10

2 cups green split peas
8 cups water
1 onion, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
2-3 potatoes, chunked
2 bay leaves
2 tablespoons parsley flakes
1 tablespoon Dijon-style mustard
1 teaspoon basil
1 teaspoon paprika
¼ teaspoon black pepper

Place the peas and water in a large soup pot.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 20 minutes.  Add the remaining ingredients, mix well and bring to a boil again.  Reduce heat, cover and simmer for about 40 minutes, until vegetables are tender.  Remove from heat and let rest for 15 minutes to thicken before serving, if desired.  Season with a bit of sea salt before serving (optional).

Hints:  This will thicken even more as it cools, and will be very thick if refrigerated until the next day.  This is wonderful in a bowl with some fresh baked bread, or ladle it over baked potatoes or brown rice.

Variation:  For a delicious Curried Split Pea Soup, leave out all of the seasonings in the above recipe and add 2-3 tablespoons curry powder and ¼ cup nutritional yeast.

You will likely have the ingredients for this tasty soup already in your cupboards and pantry, so no need for an extra trip to the market for supplies.

I got the idea from Chef AJ and her own yellow split pea recipe. Just substitute yellow split peas for the green and sweet potatoes for the russets. How simple! And it's a nice change of taste than green split pea soup all the time.

Even quicker than the above directions  - just toss the ingredients into a pressure cooker and cook it up on Manual 10 minutes. It's your choice if you want to let it sit for natural release or release it as soon as it's finished. I usually press the power button when it's done then come back to it about a half hour later.At that point it's cool enough to blend without burning myself if it splashes a bit.

We don't like chunky pea soups around here so I always take an immersion blender to them as soon as they've cooled down a bit. It's also because I'm too lazy/tired/in pain to stand at the counter chopping my veggies into tiny pieces. If it's a toss up between tossing the raw veggies into a food processor to cut or blending the whole soup with an immersion blender so even the peas are blended, the immersion blender wins every time.