Soup Weather !

"The weather outside is frightful..." - but soup is so delightful!  Pardon me for messing with the lyrics, but when the temps plummet we like nothing better than to enjoy our cozy home and settle in with a bowl of hot soup.  I have a few recipes for soup that cook all day in the crock pot or slow cooker.  We love chicken noodle soup - and you can see my version of that soup here - 

Chicken Soup

Yesterday I made Split Pea soup - and it was the perfect meal for a cold winter night.  I found the recipe a few years ago on a blog called Simply Happy Foodie, and you can find the printable recipe on that blog - Simply Happy Foodie Split Pea Soup

I make a few changes to the recipe to suit our taste and diet - and it turns out great.

First I chop three carrots...I don't chop them too fine as I like to see the carrots in the soup...

Then one onion...

Three stalks of celery...and I usually chop up the celery leaves, too.

Rinse and sort through the peas...then add them to the crock pot.

Once you rinse them they kind of stick together, so I break them up in the pot.

I usually use vegetable broth, but with the supply chain issues I have had trouble finding veggie broth in the large size, so I bought a few of the low sodium chicken broth until I can find the veggie version.  The recipe calls for 7 cups of broth, but I used two containers for a total of 8 cups.

Add the chopped veggies to the peas and broth, then stir in 

2 Bay Leaves

1/4 teaspoon of Thyme leaves ( I just eyeball it....)

1/4 teaspoon of salt - I use kosher and put it in with other spices

1/4 teaspoon ground pepper - once again, just eyeball it

Turmeric - this is not in the original recipe, but I have been adding it to all my soups.  It is supposed to have great health benefits and we don't notice any taste difference.  Once again, I don't measure...just shake some in!

The original recipe calls for bacon, a leftover ham bone, or diced leftover ham  - or all three. We don't eat that much meat anymore, so I just leave that out.  The recipe calls for liquid smoke, but I don't use that either.

Mix everything together - and I usually spray the pot with olive oil spray or Pam so nothing sticks...

Put the lid on, set to low, and cook for 7-8 hours.

And that is it....all day long you can smell the soup cooking and you just know you are going to have a warm, healthy meal ready for dinner!

After 8 hours this is the finished product.

I serve a big bowl topped with some croutons and a little sprinkle of chopped up turkey bacon - if I have any on hand, but it is a fine soup without any additions.  We enjoy it with some crusty bread...usually those big whole grain seeded loaves at Costco.

And here is the best part...leftovers.  The original recipe says it serves 8-10, and I am guessing that is smaller servings.  With the big soup bowls we use I find you can get 6 good, dinner sized servings.  So the other servings are put in containers from Dollar Tree and my husband's job is to label them...These two are labeled "Dry January Pea Soup" and "Eagles vs Bucs Pea Soup"!  Dry January because we have been reading that is a "thing" - and after our anniversary this weekend where we had mimosas, wine, champagne  - we are going for a dry rest of the month.  And Eagles vs Bucs....the Philadelphia Eagles are in the playoffs and we are hoping for a good outcome this weekend.  I love the way he labels the food for the freezer - we have a small upright freezer in our laundry room - and I always get a giggle when I go to find something in the freezer!

Today is another very cold day!  John has requested Toasted Cheese and Tomato Soup for dinner.  I checked the pantry and I don't have any cans of tomato soup and I am not venturing out in 13 degree weather for a can of soup.  BUT...in the back of that freezer is a container of chopped up garden tomatoes.  We don't have a garden - never did and being in an apartment we won't now.  But our community has an area where residents can rent a garden plot for 5 dollars a season.  Many of our neighbors do, and we often find fresh produce at our door as they have a bountiful harvest.  One day our neighbor gave us a big bag of tomatoes...I just chopped them up and froze them - and today I am going to turn them into soup.  If it works out I will post how it went on a later post!

Thanks so much for stopping by Our New Vista today - please leave a message below and let me know if you have a good soup recipe...or what dishes you like to prepare on these cold winter days.  Have a great week and stay warm!