Well, yeah, it’s just that type of weather. But, this soup was actually prompted by a really tasteless and bad can of split pea soup I recently purchased. No flavor or anything. I thought, wow, I have to be able to make better split pea soup than this and you know what? I totally could and did. You can too. This was very, very tasty and really hits the spot on a cold day. Give it a try!
Split Pea Soup:
1 tbsp bacon fat or 1 piece of bacon (or 1 tbsp olive oil will work too)
1 onion, diced
1 large carrot, diced
2 celery stalks, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 bay leaf
12 ounces dried green or yellow split peas, picked over and rinsed
5 cups chicken broth
2-3 tsp fresh thyme leaves
salt & pepper
So, every year around the holidays, I buy bacon. It’s a kind of Christmas present. (Yes, I am getting to the recipe). Anyway, we enjoy the smoky pleasures of bacon from around Thanksgiving to Christmas. The rest of the year — no bacon. But, what I do, is save the bacon grease from each cooking session, let it cool and divide it into 1 tbsp single servings and freeze it. That way, if I need bacon grease for cooking something I have some and there is absolutely no excuse to buy bacon outside of the alloted holiday time period. So, if you have bacon grease, use a tablespoon (or a bit less) of it here. If not, cook a strip of bacon, remove said bacon and use that grease. You could also, of course, just use olive oil and lord your healthy and/or vegetarian habits over all of us.
Back to the soup. Warm up your grease/oil/lubricant of choice on medium heat and sauté the onion, garlic, carrot and celery. Add a pinch of salt and continue to cook for 3-4 minutes until soft. Add the bay leaf.
Now, add the peas, then the 5 cups of stock and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer, cover and cook 50-55 minutes, stirring occasionally. You want the peas to break down and thicken the soup. After this has happened, add the fresh thyme and taste. Add salt and pepper as needed and if you can find the bay leaf, remove it. Otherwise, just mention to your fellow soup eaters that there’s a rogue bay leaf in there somewhere and not to eat it.
Garnish with sour cream and fresh thyme and enjoy. Then maybe snuggle under an afghan and watch some Farscapes or something, ’cause it’s cold and rainy out.
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Coming up:
- Friday is SHF#13! Mine has already been made, documented and devoured! I’m really looking forward to posting about it because it turned out really well.
- And, Saturday, my IMBB#20 soufflé post should be up. I’d give a hint as to how that (2nd attempt) turned out but, uh, that’s on the cooking schedule for Friday night.