Silky Split Pea Soup

During the summer my little brother graduated from college in Santa Barbara... Yeah! Anyway, while we were there, Marco, Chloe, and I went to a little “mom and pop” restaurant and had some fabulous split pea soup. Chloe and I couldn’t get enough of the stuff and we pretty much fought over who would lick the bowl. It has taken me about four months to finally give it a try. If I knew how easy is was to make split pea soup, I would have done it four months ago!

Special equipment:

immersion blender (a regular blender will also work, but you might want to wait for the soup to cool a little so you don’t end up with green walls!)

Silky Split Pea Soup

2 medium white onions, chopped

1 T Garlic-Chili-Spiked Olive Oil (a Grub recipe), plus extra for garnish

1/2t salt

1/2 t paprika, plus extra for garnish

1/2 t ground ginger, plus extra for garnish

1 32 oz box veg stock

1 cup water

juice of 1/2 lemon, plus extra for garnish

1 16 oz dried split peas

Sauté onions over medium-low heat in 1 tablespoon of Garlic-Chili-Spiked Olive Oil until tender. Add salt, paprika, and ginger and heat through. If the onions get a bit dry, add a drizzle of veg stock and continue to sauté. When onions are nice and soft, add rest of veg stock, water, lemon juice, and split peas. Simmer for 20-30 minutes until split peas are soft.

Now grab your immersion blender and whiz away! You want your soup to be completely creamy and silky. Serve with a sprinkle of paprika and ginger, a drizzle of fresh lemon juice and a douse of Garlic-Chili-Spiked Olive Oil.

So, there you have it! Grab a big hunk of whole grain bread and there’s dinner. Great for this cool autumn weather.