Pea Soup Recipe
- Standard 16oz bag of dry split peas
- A vague quantity of onion - one small, half a large, whatever, diced fine
- A carrot or two, diced
- Garlic, minced
- One slice bacon
- About 2 quarts of some flavorful liquid like broth. I like water plus a tablespoon of Better than Bullion. It need not be very flavorful
- Some curry. A teaspoon.
- 2 bay leaves
- Salt and pepper
- Try some other spices, too.
- Rinse and sort the peas. Rocks are not tasty. Neither is dirt.
- Fry the bacon over medium heat in a large pot big enough for everything.
- When bacon is cooked but still soft, remove it from the pot and dice it fine. Leave the grease in the pot.
- Add to the pot the aromatics (carrot, onion, and garlic) and some salt (not too much) and reduce heat to medium low. Sweat, stirring occasionally. We're sweating, not sauteeing, so we want a hiss, not a sizzle.
- When the onion is glassy and soft and the carrots have gotten a bit tender, add everything else. That's right, everything, including that diced bacon. Bring to a boil.
- When the mixture boils, reduce the heat to a simmer and just cook the hell out of it, stirring when you remember to do so.
- After maybe an hour, the peas should be mushy and be falling apart. If not, cook longer. Taste-test and add whatever you feel is appropriate.
- If you've got some sort of weird texture phobia, toss it in a blender or mush further with a stick blender, hand mixer, or a high-surface-area potato masher. Personally, I like having bits in my pea soup.
- What to do with it when cooked? That's an exercise left to the reader.
Makes about, oh... six servings? Not exactly a standardized unit.