Hopefully this was the last week for cold wintery weather in Pennsylvania. I tried to warm my spirits with one of my favorite vegan recipes, split pea soup. It’s vegan, nutritious, and delicious. It’s also very warm and comforting for this time of year.
I’ll usually make a whole bunch of it to eat throughout the week. It reheats well, and can be kept in the refrigerator for several days. Serve it with toast, you will not need much else to enhance the flavor of this soup.
Vegan Split Pea Soup
about 8-10 servings
Ingredients:
- 8 cups of vegetable broth, I used water and added vegetable bouillon cubes
- 2 cups dried, sorted, rinsed split peas
- 3 medium sized carrots
- 3 stalks celery
- 1 medium onion
- 3 cloves garlic
- 2-3 tbsp thyme
- 1-2 bay leaves
- 4 drops liquid smoke
- pepper to taste
Directions:
- In a large pot heat vegetable broth or water with bouillon, and add sorted, rinsed split peas. While this is heating chop carrot, celery, onion, and garlic into very small pieces. I just threw all of these vegetables into a food processor and pulsed them until they were thoroughly chopped. After chopping, add veggies to pot.
- Add thyme, bay leaves, and pepper to the mix, and let simmer until the split peas begin to soften. This takes about an hour.
- Once the split peas are soft begin to mash them in the pot. I used my spoon to do this, you can also use an immersion blender, or an actual blender depending on how smooth you would like your soup to be.
- Add the liquid smoke when most of the water is absorbed in the pot. Don’t add too much, because this stuff is strong!
- Continue to check on soup, stirring and mashing until all of the water is absorbed.
- Remove bay leaves, and serve!
*If you’d like to be a little adventurous with this soup, try using a vegan porter in place of the liquid smoke. Add it after most of the water is absorbed. This will make your soup a little heartier, and sweeter. Only use about half of the bottle of beer, and then drink the rest while you’re waiting for your delicious soup to finish brewing. You can look up your favorite porters here to make sure they are vegan. Founder’s Porter is one of my favorites to use, if it’s available.
veganvitals 
I made split pea soup before, but I haven’t try the smokey taste, quite interesting. But if once I get the ingredient, I will have a try, thanks for your idea! http://matchamochimoo.wordpress.com/?s=split+pea+soup&submit=Search
We’re about to enter winter here so this recipe is one I will definitely try. I hope you have warmer weather soon! 🙂
YES! We have been making a similar version of this around here lately and I can’t get enough. It’s so good, will have to try your version! Thank you.