It's definitely mid-winter, and I've found myself spending more time indoors and much more time craving warm, enriching, satisfyingly moreish bowls of soup. Smooth soups, heavy soups, spicy noodle soups - I've been eating them all.
There seems to be no time at which soup is inappropriate: My Auntie Dang would often give us packets of noodle soup for breakfast, and I spent my university-days boiling up quick vegetable soups to pack in jars in my backpack. These days I've been eating spiced, warming purées - a mélange of vegetables, pulses, spices, and broth, designed specifically to comfort and soothe on dark, rainy January days.
This soup is a simple, tasty mixture of vegetables - it sits in my mind somewhere between memories of childhood soups in school lunches (for its almost gloupy mixture of potatoes, carrots, and saltiness) and somewhere near my mothers split pea soup, thick, rich, and full of flavour. It's easy, in that you leave it for a long while to cook on the stove, but time consuming, in that the split peas can take a few hours to soften even when they've been soaked. A good blitz with a stick blender helps this process along, and you'll soon be in simple, comforting, soup-heaven.
*****
1/2 cup split yellow peas, soaked overnight or in boiling water for one hour
1 onion, chopped
1 potato, peeled and chopped
1 carrot, chopped,
1 sweet potato, peeled and chopped
2 cups vegetable stock
a handful of spinach, torn
salt and pepper
cream, for drizzling
1. Rinse and drain your split peas, and then bring to a boil in some clean water. Boil for about 20 minutes, then set aside, reserving the cooking water. 2. In a soup pot, sauté your onions in a bit of oil over medium heat. When soft, add in your chopped vegetables and continue to cook, stirring occasionally. 3. After about three minutes, add in your stock, deglazing the pan and scraping any nice bits off the bottom. Stir in your split peas and about a cup of the cooking water. Bring the soup to a boil, and simmer for an hour-and-a-half. 4. Season to taste and then remove from heat. Using an immersion blender or in a regular blender, purée the soup to a smooth consistency. I like to leave a tiny bit unblended to add texture, but this is entirely up to you. Return to the pan, stir in your spinach, and reheat over low heat. Serve with a drizzle of cream.
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