BEAT THE CURSE OF FRUGAL INGREDIENTS WITH YELLOW SPLIT PEA SOUP: low-salt, high protein

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3. WEIGHT LOSS/PREDIABETIC BUDGET RECIPE 

With food prices as they are, many cooks are beginning to find it's not easy to make budget ingredients taste wonderful, look good and reappear repeatedly without the family moaning. 

But this wonderful Canadian Yellow Split Pea soup - thick, rich and substantial - is an exception.  

Triple Duty Split Yellow-Pea Soup: Vegan base topped with cream cheese for vegetarians; with ham; with beef  

'Really comforting delicious high protein  soup.' Taster

67 can't stress enough how exceptionally flavourful this soup is, how comforting and how healthy. 

It is also delightfully low cost.   Split yellow peas are probably 1 of the cheapest pulses around: 28p for 100 gm or £1.40 for 500g (organic just 40p more per 500g).  25K bags (for sharing ) from Whole Foods is £32.25.

From a wellness point of view, thick soups with high-protein pulses ease stress, medically as well as financially, by calming and building up the body. 

Canadian Yellow Split Pea Soup is also Triple Duty: the easy vegan base  is topped or mixed with vegetarian or carnivore additions. It has endless varieties.  

Take your pick of cooking methods.  Cook it on a stovetop, in a slow cooker or a sturdy pot over an open fire.  Serve it chunky or blitzed to a puree.  

The soup's a 67 favourite and no apologies are offered for repeating it. Because we can too easily get used to 'good enough' when it comes to budget food.

Directions for the soup are easy but you will need a bit of time and organisation. There's a bit of chopping & a bit of measuring and you  need to soak the peas the night before.  On cooking day, your kitchen will be filled with the mouthwatering aromas.  

Cost: Not much, maybe £1.50; more for organic ingreds  
Feeds: 6 generously; leftovers freeze well 

Ingreds:

Split yellow peas:   

   1 cup dried yellow split peas

   tap water to cover

   2 tsp turmeric

   2 garlic cloves, unpeeled (opt) 
   
The soup:     

   med onion in med dice
   1 cup carrots, thinly sliced
   two sticks celery, coarsely chopped
   1 large potato or sweet potato in med dice (opt)

   1-2 tbsp olive oil

   1 garlic clove, grated or minced

   1/3 tsp smoked paprika
   1/4 tsp marjoram (opt)
   1/4 tsp dried basil
   1/8 tsp cumin
   1/4 tsp salt
   1/8 tsp pepper

   1/8 tsp dried thyme

   1 bay leaf

   
   1 litre vegetable stock 

(For Potage of Ham & Split Yellow Pea: ham bones and/or 110 gm/4 oz shredded ham hock OR back bacon with fat removed OR sliced ham)

Ham (buried in soup) & Split Pea Potage cooked to a luxurious thickness - you can stand a spoon up in it -  add stock to make it go further.

After cooking is complete add all or some of:  

   pinch chilli flakes or a finely diced small chilli (opt)
   couple of generous handfuls spinach or kale
   1/3 cup button mushrooms, in large dice

Method:

1. PEAS.  Soak overnight in plenty of water; remove any bits floating on top; drain.  Cover peas with an inch of fresh water, add unpeeled garlic cloves & turmeric, bring to a boil.  Turn heat down to simmer; cook 20 mins.  Take off heat; remove garlic cloves; separate peas from liquid; set both aside & cool 1 hour.  Unless using straight away store in fridge 4 hours or overnight  (This step can be completed the day or morning before needed.  
2. When ready to prepare soup, put a large heavy-bottomed pot on high; when hot, add oil, onions, carrots, celery & potatoes; immediately reduce heat to low; stir; add garlic; cover pan partially with lid; cook 20 mins, stir occasionally 
3. Mix enough split pea cooking liquid and stock to make a litre;  add to pot with herbs and split peas 
4. Bring to a boil; skim off any froth; bubble 5 mins.  (Add ham bones/ham if using).  Then either...
5. Slow Cooker: cook on low 6-8 hours  OR
6. Stovetop: Simmer with lid slightly ajar 3-4 hours
7. Now and again, check the level of the liquid ; more stock may be needed.  The split peas are ready when they are soft but still  holding their shape 
8. Take half of the mix; coarsely puree and return to pot OR process all to a rough puree
9. Stir in zest & juice of lemon 
10. Serve piping hot with choice of additions and garnishes (below)
11. For a fullly rounded meal, add a side salad and/or chunky breads like easy-peasy Cheese & Walnut Soda Bread or Cornbread with Corn Niblets, Scallions & Chillis, simple toast or the ultra-frugal simple & delicious Breakfast Biscuits (doubling here as dinner rolls) 

1. Vegan/Vegetarian Garnishes:

• Memorable Crunchy Croutons 
• Vegan 'Bacon Bits 
• Spinach or kale:stir into completed soup, leave a further 20 mins or until kale is no longer raw
• Mushrooms: slice thickly; fry gently in oil until golden; scatter over or heap in centre of soup 
• Cream Cheese

2.  Carnivores/Pescatatarian Garnish:

• Shards of ham hock or sliced ham
• Mini beefballs blanched in boiling water 5 mins
• Flaked smoked fish.

Comments:

'It's a really comforting soup.' Semi-retired council administrator

'My all-time favourite is the ham & split pea potage: it has the flavour of ham but not the salt!  The vegan/vegetarian versions need something salty, crunchy or strongly flavoured to give it a kick; otherwise it gets boring.' Retired writer

Tip:

• Defrost frozen soup overnight, add a half cup of water or stock and heat gently until hot through
• Split peas are excellent for the histamine-sensitive* (usually the over 50's); split peas are low in histamines;lentils and pulses are high.  
• One suggested ratio for split peas to water is 2 litres of water/stock per each 500gm/18oz split yellow peas.

History: 

Long before lentils and beans were modern go-to ingredients, yellow and green split peas were a staple in poor Canadian provinces on the Atlantic Coast.  A single recipe, studded with plenty of root veg, would be stretched with stock/water and bits of protein or more veg as the days went on (the blogger never keeps soup longer than 3 days unless frozen). 

In the UK, split peas have not traditionally been used but are now readily available in supermarkets and health food shops.  Standard yellow split peas cost £2.80  per kilo; organic is a little  more. 

The potage is so good, you might want to share a 25 kilo bag of split yellow peas from Whole Foods with friends, splitting the £32.25 cost.  

NOTES ON HISTAMINES: Histamines are chemicals in the body responsible for allergic responses; they can't be avoided.  Histamine intolerance doesn't mean the body is sensitive to it but does indicate there's too much of it in the body.  Research into Histamine intolerance continues; it's poorly understood and not easy to diagnose.  However limiting foods which produce high levels of histamines can help.

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This recipe  has been developed by B  Lee/ Bright Sun Enterprises and may not be reproduced, in any form, without the author's written permission.