Saturday, March 7, 2009. After a few days of not making soup, I began to jones again for it, so went into the kitchen and made one for breakfast.  I have been making soups in my small one quart pot on purpose, because for decades I made tons of soup at one time and would have to eat the same one for a week or freeze it.  This way, I can make a new soup each day if I like. 

Split pea is a favorite of mine because I can make it in 45 minutes.  Even though I make only one quart of it, I sautee my vegetables in a 2 quart pot so I can get them all kind of browning and carmelizing.  Don’t get sucked into making 2 quarts of soup by doing it in the larger pot though!

I start with a tsp of olive oil and chop a large onion.  I like a lot of onion.  I get that to carmelizing in the pan and add 2 chopped carrots and 1 chopped celery stalk.  I really like twice as much carrot to celery ratio. If I chop them fine enough, I don’t have to zap them later with the hand mixer.

I let that all cook together while I chop 6 garlic cloves.  I like a lot of garlic also.  I add the garlic in, then thinly slice and then chop a medium potato.  if I keep it thin enough, the potato will melt right into the soup, thickening it.

Then I add just 3-4 oz of washed split peas, and enough lowfat chicken broth to cover it by 2″.

I add 3 bay leaves, about 1/2 tsp each of cumino and thyme, and a splash of oregano.  Then I set it on a low simmer, barely but steadily bubbling, and set my timer on 20 minutes.  At 20 minutes I check to see if it needs more broth, then let it go another 25 minutes.

When it’s done, I can either use the hand mixer to make it very smooth, or I can just kind of whip it with a fork until it’s the consistency I like.

Soup for breakfast?  Absolutely!