Sunday, February 9, 2014
Soup Project 2014: Soup 5 - Split Pea Soup
This one is a little bit of a cheat since this is the soup I've made before - have been making it for a while now. It is my go to soup. The recipe is the one my Mom gave me and she doesn't really follow recipes - she watched how her mother cooked. (My Grandmother was the best cook ever, so that was a good strategy). Split pea soup has been my favorite since childhood and I really wanted some, so it is this week's soup project. The recipe is approximate, I guestimate ingredients and vary them depending on what is in my fridge. It takes 2 hours to cook it with beef and about an hour without beef.
Ingredients
1 chunk of beef, still frozen (I have no idea what cut it is. My Mom buys beef in Costco, cuts it up in soup chunks, about size of a palm and puts that in my freezer.)
1/4 pound green split peas (1/4 of a bag)
1/4 pound yellow split peas
1 onion, chopped
2 potatoes, peeled and chopped into cubes
2 carrots, one peeled and chopped, another peeled and grated
1 leek, cut to small pieces
salt to taste
Directions
1. Take a small pot, put the chunk of frozen beef in cold water. Boil. Once the water has boiled, pour out the water and put the beef in a large pot (I use my biggest pot to make soup for the week). Cover with fresh cold water to 3/4 of the pot, bring to boil, and then lower the heat. The meat should boil by itself in a pot for about an hour overall after you take it out of the freezer. Meanwhile, chop and prep all the veggies.
2. After the beef was in a pot for an hour, add yellow and green split peas (after washing them). Stir and cook for 20 minutes.
3. 20 minutes after adding peas, add all the other veggies (onion, carrot, potato, leak). Stir and leave on low/medium heat for about 40 minutes.
4. 40 minutes after adding the veggies, take the beef out and cut it up in small pieces. It should be clearly fully cooked. Put back in the pot. Turn off the gas after 5 more minutes.
It came out really tasty as usual. I add salt at the end just a little. Mostly I let Bear add salt to his own bowl, since he likes it much more saltier than me. Great with fresh black bread.
Mostly home today; we just went grocery shopping. My parents came over because our tax accountant works nearby and they were doing the taxes today. They went to the mall this morning to check out a maternity store there, and Mama got me three nice shirts that would be good for work. And she brought me some of her old cardigans and a dress that would work nicely too. I'm trying to work as much with what we have and not buy too much stuff. And I also got a Cupcake Magazine that the store was promoting.
We also watched Olympics on/off throughout the day. I love the biathlon and I caught the women's one, which was fun. Also I watched some ski jumping, luge and ice skating. Olympics are awesome.
This one is a little bit of a cheat since this is the soup I've made before - have been making it for a while now. It is my go to soup. The recipe is the one my Mom gave me and she doesn't really follow recipes - she watched how her mother cooked. (My Grandmother was the best cook ever, so that was a good strategy). Split pea soup has been my favorite since childhood and I really wanted some, so it is this week's soup project. The recipe is approximate, I guestimate ingredients and vary them depending on what is in my fridge. It takes 2 hours to cook it with beef and about an hour without beef.
Ingredients
1 chunk of beef, still frozen (I have no idea what cut it is. My Mom buys beef in Costco, cuts it up in soup chunks, about size of a palm and puts that in my freezer.)
1/4 pound green split peas (1/4 of a bag)
1/4 pound yellow split peas
1 onion, chopped
2 potatoes, peeled and chopped into cubes
2 carrots, one peeled and chopped, another peeled and grated
1 leek, cut to small pieces
salt to taste
Directions
1. Take a small pot, put the chunk of frozen beef in cold water. Boil. Once the water has boiled, pour out the water and put the beef in a large pot (I use my biggest pot to make soup for the week). Cover with fresh cold water to 3/4 of the pot, bring to boil, and then lower the heat. The meat should boil by itself in a pot for about an hour overall after you take it out of the freezer. Meanwhile, chop and prep all the veggies.
2. After the beef was in a pot for an hour, add yellow and green split peas (after washing them). Stir and cook for 20 minutes.
3. 20 minutes after adding peas, add all the other veggies (onion, carrot, potato, leak). Stir and leave on low/medium heat for about 40 minutes.
4. 40 minutes after adding the veggies, take the beef out and cut it up in small pieces. It should be clearly fully cooked. Put back in the pot. Turn off the gas after 5 more minutes.
It came out really tasty as usual. I add salt at the end just a little. Mostly I let Bear add salt to his own bowl, since he likes it much more saltier than me. Great with fresh black bread.
Mostly home today; we just went grocery shopping. My parents came over because our tax accountant works nearby and they were doing the taxes today. They went to the mall this morning to check out a maternity store there, and Mama got me three nice shirts that would be good for work. And she brought me some of her old cardigans and a dress that would work nicely too. I'm trying to work as much with what we have and not buy too much stuff. And I also got a Cupcake Magazine that the store was promoting.
We also watched Olympics on/off throughout the day. I love the biathlon and I caught the women's one, which was fun. Also I watched some ski jumping, luge and ice skating. Olympics are awesome.