Better Than Blair Split Pea Soup

Sorry, it's just when I personally hear the words "pea soup", I cannot get this image out of my mind.  So now when you are cooking (and eating) this delicious vegan soup, you will not get this picture out of YOUR mind.

Now....on to the recipe!

This soup was made completely from scratch.  I am just going to guess on the amounts, because I eyeballed everything.  Oh yeah, and it is completely VEGAN!

Those carrots are supposed to be
artistic, they look a little disturbing.
Sorry.

Better Than Blair Split Pea Soup

Ingredients:

• One 1 lb. bag of dried yellow split peas (yellow so the soup won't look so much like the picture above)
• 4 carrots
• 4 celery stalks
• 8 cloves of garlic (more or less depending on the amount of vampires in your house)
• 1 large onion
• 2-4 bouillon cubes of vegan chicken broth
• a few Tbls. of KAL nutritional yeast
• salt and pepper
• crushed red pepper flakes
• thyme
• olive oil
• 11 cups of water
• 3 bay leaves

Directions:

• First, chop up all your veggies (the carrots, celery and onion).  Mince your garlic.  Throw some olive oil in a large pot and smother it with all your chopped veggie goodness.  Sauté the veggies until they get soft.  Add your crushed red pepper flakes here.  They are super spicy so be warned, I add a ton but I like to feel the burn.
• Dump in your water, peas, bouillon cubes, nutritional yeast, and bay leaves.  I put the yeast in there for flavor and for the nutrients (yet again, another win-win).
• Bring this concoction to a rolling boil.  Once you get it boiling, bring it down to a gentle simmer and add some thyme (just a few pinches should do the trick).  Add two or three bay leaves while you are at it.
• Stir occasionally.  Go back to your living room and watch some Project Runway.  But don't forget to check on the soup every now and again!
• Okay, now it should be okay to taste.  Make sure you TASTE THE SOUP BEFORE YOU SEASON IT!  If you dump a bunch of salt n pepa on your soup before the old taste test you could end up being very bummed out.  Taste it, add some spice and be done with it.
• Heidi has just announced "and that means [contestant name] you are out.  Auf Wiedersehen".  So it must have been about an hour or so.  If the peas are soft, then it is time to take the soup off the stove.
• If you have a hand blender, you can use it now to get your soup to cream up.  Otherwise, you can eat it all chunky like or you can put it bit by bit into your blender.  It's up to you (and whatever resources you have).
• Voila!  You have soup!  Toast some bread, throw some Tofutti sour cream on the top and enjoy!

Serves 4-6

Prep time: 1.5 hours

Your base ingredients: "chicken soup" and yellow split peas

Saute, flambe, and sashay!

What happens when you slice onions.
No pain, no gain.