Split Pea Soup

Split Pea Soup

Pressure Cooker method

Blue Heron Kitchen

Fall is dancing, there's a blue pumpkin on my doorstep; and soup's on the menu at Blue Heron Kitchen. On the east coast in the U.S., root vegetables are the bounty at farmer's markets. This season, I'm loving the produce from Terry's farms out in Orient Point on eastern Long Island. I dream of their purple and golden carrots and crispy heads of purple Romaine lettuce. I've roasted tomatoes, shucked and boiled corn and steamed and chopped spinach. I've packed, labeled and frozen these gorgeous summer vegetables. I'll have to force myself to pull them out and use them, knowing they'll then truly be gone. But oh, how sneaky, to eat real gutsy spinach in January. 

To quote one of my husbands, "these are the salad days." It's only a matter of weeks before it'll be too cold to open the front door. I'm cooking for those colder days and stocking the freezer with soup. Using seasonal, fresh ingredients will always make your creations taste better. I'm still harvesting and cooking with rosemary, parsley, bay leaves and thyme from my herb garden. I'm drying my rosemary and bay leaves for the winter. 

Pretty soon all the produce at Whole Foods and Fairway and every market everywhere will have a coating of wax and everything will taste like rubber. That's when it's time to eat Twinkies quinoa. So get thee to the greenmarket, start cooking, preserving and freezing. 

If you don't own a pressure cooker, I hope this will inspire you to buy one. You'll love it. Chick peas will cook in 14 minutes. Brussels sprouts in 2 minutes, and you'll have piping hot, ready-to-serve soup in 1/2 an hour. Beyond saving time, you have to believe that the shorter the cooking time, the less you tamper with your food's nutritional value. Here's the one I like. 

This is a hearty soup, one that you can easily serve as a main course. Add salad and bread (regular or gluten-free), and "dassit"! 

Ingredients:

1 pound organic (green) split peas

10-11 cups water (10 for a thicker soup and 11 for a thinner soup)

1 smoked ham shank or ham bone or smoked turkey leg or wing

1 onion, diced (alternatively, whole and then removed)

3 carrots, diced

2 celery ribs, diced

1 small Japanese yam or sweet potato, diced (or 1 medium white potato, diced)

1 Tbsp. fresh thyme, diced (or 1 ½ tsp. dried thyme)

1 parsnip, peeled and cut into a few large chunks

fresh parsley and dill

1 bay leaf

salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Procedure: 

Put all ingredients in your pressure cooker. I use a "soup sock" (a cheesecloth bag). (Those are two different links - I've used both and both are great. The Lieber ones are smaller. I found them in Fairway.) Into my soup sock goes: a whole onion, the parsnip, parsley, dill and bay leaf. Most people love the onion diced, but I don’t. When the soup is done, simply remove and discard the soup bag.

Bring the pot up to pressure (in the Fagor Duo, use the high, #2 setting). Cook for 20 minutes and removing the pot from the burner, use the natural-release method, allowing the pressure to release on its own terms. (This will take an additional 20+ minutes.) Soup's too thin? .. simmer slowly and reduce it on the stove-top. Thick as .. pea soup? .. add water, little by little, stirring over low heat to pea-fection.

If the ham bone was meaty, remove the meat from the bone and throw it into the soup. (Don't bother with meat from a smoked turkey part.) You can always add some diced ham to the finished soup.

Vegetarians, consider adding some veggie hot dogs or sausage/crumble to the finished soup.

Croutons are a perfect garnish. For gluten-free croutons (they’re sold as stuffing cubes), I found some at glutenfreemall.com, a great resource for those who don’t include wheat or gluten in their diets.

Should we always use organic vegetables? Pesticides drain into the soil and surround the roots of our vegetables and fruits. Root vegetables burrow and snuggle into that soil. We both know that buying organic food isn’t always possible and some fruits and vegetables are more vulnerable to sprays. Here's a link to the 'dirty dozen' and 'clean 15' of produce, originally published by the Environmental Working Group. Try baking an organic potato and one that isn't organic and do a taste taste. Make sure they're both the same varietals, say Russet. You'll taste the difference. Organic is almost always more expensive. But getting sick in America isn't cheap. 

Go organic in hyper-moderation. 

BLUE HERON KITCHEN’S SOUP KITCHEN TRUCS:

 

A pressure cooker - dramatically reduces cooking time

A fat separator (not necessary for this recipe, but for clear soups, a must!)

Cheesecloth soup socks (links above) or cheesecloth

Containers for storing, giving and freezing

Soup stock (a whole world), but if you make it, freeze it in quart containers

Have low sodium soup stocks in your pantry

"Better than Bouillon" stock bases are good (some are organic and some gluten-free), 

      but use sparingly because you'll relinquish sodium control to big brother "BTB"

Always have bay leaves that are either fresh or dried and that are less than one year old

Always have thyme that is either fresh or dried and that is less than one year old

When using water (as opposed to stock), use excellent quality, filtered water.

Don’t be afraid to use salt (unless you need to restrict your intake)

peace-oop and love,

jane