Semi-Organic Vegan Split Pea Soup

You’re probably thinking to yourself what kind of parent forces this type of soup on their children?  Well, before you flame me in the comments section, my parents never fed this soup to me as a child.  As a parent, I never made or force fed my children with this soup.  The origins of this soup are simple.  It’s Sunday.  So what do you want for lunch?  It’s winter.  Soup.

How about some split pea soup?  Rather than mine the internet I went to my cookbook collection.  After a few unsuccessful look ups I settled upon Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison.  My recipe is adapted from Madison’s recipe.  After over 40 years of cooking I’ve finally figured out why I can never follow a recipe.  

I can’t follow a recipe because I usually don’t have all of the ingredients.

The reason why this soup is semi-organic is because not all of the ingredients are certified organic.  I’m pretty sure the organic portion is due to the fact those ingredients were on sale.  (I want a healthy soup, not the most expensive split pea soup ever made).  11:00 am.  Soup should be ready by noon.  My recipe gets posted only if it tastes good.

• 2 cups split green peas, rinsed
• 2 T extra virgin olive oil
• 1 large onion, diced
• 3 carrots, peeled and diced
• 1 stalk celery, diced
• 2 large garlic cloves, minced
• 1 T dried parsley
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 1 tsp dried rosemary
• 1 tsp paprika
• 2 bay leaves
• 1.5 quarts vegetable stock or broth
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1. Soak the split peas in water while preparing the soup ingredients.
2. Heat the olive oil in a soup pot over medium heat.
3. Add onion, celery, and carrots.  Saute for around 10 minutes.
4. Add garlic and dried herbs, and fresh black pepper.  Saute for another 2-3 minutes.
5. Drain and add the split peas.  Add the vegetable stock/broth and bring to a boil.
6. Stir often so the peas don’t stick.
7. Reduce the heat, partially cover, and simmer gently for approximately one hour.
8. It’s yummy tummy time.

For the curious regarding semi-organic: carrots, vegetable stock and most of the herbs were organic.  The rest of the ingredients were high quality but not USDA certified organic.