Hey guys!
This is Heather from HealthyVeganRecipes.net.
Alright, weíre getting to soup season and today weíre gonna make one of my favorites
split peas soup.
Now for those of you who donít know this, split peas soup often comes with ham in it.
Especially here in Canada, the French Canadian version of pea soup includes ham so it can
be tricky sometime to find a vegan version of it and it is so so tasty so I love to make
my own and that way I know there is no animal food in it.
Ok, so weíre gonna start as all fantastic soup start with some garlic and onion.
For those of you who want the recipe with the directions and all of the measurements.
You can head over to HealthyVeganRecipes.net.
Iím just gonna go over how to make the recipe and the important things you should keep in
mind when making it.
So again we will start with onion and garlic which I have already chopped up and ready
to go.
Iíve got a soup pot thatís heating up and what Iím gonna do is into that soup pot Iím
gonna put a little bit of white wine.
And Iím going to brace the onion and the garlic.
You can if you prefer sautÈ them in some oil.
I would use probably coconut oil, really nice flavor with the split peas soup.
But I like whenever possible to avoid using oil so Iím going to do it with some wine.
Alright, check it out, if you heat the pot and then add your wine, itís gonna bubble
nicely and the onions and the garlic are gonna cook a little bit.
Youíre gonna see them starts to go translucence meaning you can see through them a little
bit but not totally see through.
Again if you wanted to sautÈ these first, what I would do is sautÈ them in the oil
and then add some wine for flavor.
Ok, so when they get to look translucence, weíre going to add the split peas which are
these guys right here.
Iím using green, thereís also yellow.
Theyíre kinda pretty so you can use whichever one you like so check those in there and Iím
also gonna throw some seasonings in.
I got some bay leaves and these are actually fresh from a friendís garden where I use
to live in British Columbia.
So nice memories with those and then Iíve got some thyme and this is also fresh thyme
that Iíve dried, this is from Philís garden also in British Columbia.
Iíve carrying it around with me for a little while so itís about time I use them.
If you rub them a little bit with your hands as you throw them in.
It will help release the flavor.
And Iím gonna throw a little bit of oregano in here as well coz Iím just a little bit
crazy.
I like to put different flavors in there.
Not everyone will do oregano in a split peas soup.
Okidoki!
Stir that around a little bit so that the wine can soften up those peas just a little
bit.
Now what weíre gonna do is add some vegetable broth or water.
Little trick that I pick up form my sister in law, soul sister is to boil the water in
an electric kettle and then when your soup is ready you can just pour it on in and you
donít have to wait for it to come up to a boil again.
Saves time and helps preserve the flavor because it doesnít have to sit there in the water
while it gets boiling.
Alright, so what youíre gonna do now is put a lid on here and the name of the game is
to let those peas cook.
The beauty of a split pea soup other than starting with garlic and onions is to have
them cook really really well so that theyíre super soft and they get really nice and rich
and creamy.
If they donít cook properly itís gonna taste a little bit starchy and thatís not really
what youíre going for.
You want those things cook really really well and not only taste super super delicious but
it will also be much more easily digest so my tips for cooking these peas properly.
I have two things I wanted to say.
Number one, do not add any salt right now.
I know you want to, sometimes I kinda want to myself but if you add salt now those peas
are gonna go hard.
Theyíre not gonna cook properly and it wonít be a good scene.
So although you may feel you want to flavor this up, at this point with some salt, hold
off, please, do it!
Ok?
Another thing that Iíll mention there is that some vegetable broth can actually, ok,
let me say this first ñ so vegetable broth has salt in it.
Vegetable stalk does not, so if youíre buying some vegetable stalk or broth, check the ingredients
and make sure thereís no salt.
If there is, youíre not gonna want to use it in this recipe just use some water.
If you can find a stalk that doesnít have salt in it, excellent!
That will give you flavor, really really rich nice flavor without adding the salt thatís
gonna screw up the cooking of the peas.
Ok, thatís enough of that topic.
My number two tip for cooking the peas properly is that this is boiling right now because
I added boiling water.
Turn it down to minimum.
You want these guys to simmer.
Simmer means that itís just gonna be kind of jiggling around and not really boiling
but just very gentle bubbles coming through and the reason this is so important is because
when you boil peas theyíre gonna stay with their shape intact.
If you get them to simmer, the water is gonna enter into the peas, theyíre gonna swell
and the carbohydrates in there are gonna breakdown and thatís when you get the really nice creamy
peas.
If you boil them itís gonna be a little bit starchier so again, you can do that but itís
not gonna be quite as phenomenal of a split pea soup experience.
Ok, so what are those again?
Number one, donít use salt!
Number two, once it gets boiling turn it down to minimum.
And then you just wait for them to cook into deliciousness.
After that I will show you how to finish this off and make an amazing, delicious, easy,
healthy split pea soup.
Ok, so if you manage to follow the direction of not adding salt and letting this simmer
for quite some time, you will get some super super soft split peas.
Look at that, theyíre coming apart on their own.
Now Iím gonna puree this because I want the onions to get mix up in here as well before
I do that I am going to take out the bay leaves because theyíre not so good to eat.
Hand blender makes a perfect tool to puree soup because once your done, all you do is
take this off and then that is all you have to wash.
Plus you can puree it right in the pot so I can keep going in making this.
So there is the texture in my soup, if you want it thicker then you can do with less
water or more peas.
Or you can add some ñ something thick here like a coconut milk or something like that
but anyway moving on.
Weíre gonna add some salt and what Iím gonna add in here because it is so tasty and salty
is some miso.
This is fermented soy bean paste and so Iím just gonna stir it in here but if you donít
have miso donít worry about is just use some salt and you can throw a bit of soy sauce
or tamari in there if you want to.
But it might little bit too much flavor, the miso is kind of a just a rich salty flavor.
So what you wanna do here is just add enough salt that the flavor come throw so you wanna
get this a taste a few times to make sure itís good for you and start small because
you can always add a little bit more but you canít take it out.
Alright, now for my super special addition to this soup, Iím going to add some sundried
tomatoes and you can soak this in water beforehand and really soften this up or you can and put
them in a soup and let them marinate for a little while and they will soften and swell
with the soup.
So what Iím gonna do is just take my kitchen scissors and cut some little bit in there
and what this will do is theyíre gonna have a really nice salty bite to them so every
so often we take a bite of your soup youíre gonna have a little salty sundried tomato
coming at you.
You can also do this really nicely with olives, sun dried tomatoes!
Alright guys that itís for the recipe today you can get all of the amounts and ingredients
and directions and all that fun stuff over at HealthyVeganRecipes.net.
If youíre interested in more nutrition and healthy eating information head over to HealthyEatingStartsHere.com
and I hope you enjoy your soup.