Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Anniversary Split-Pea Soup

I love many things that are normal to love in this world. I love my family, my friends, my kitten (I really REALLY love my kitten). I love the first days of spring and the first flowers that I see. I love pizza and sunshine and really good bargains. I love it when people read this blog; I do seriously love reading other people’s blogs.

What do y’all love? I’m just wondering.

Anyway, there are two things that I love a whole lot—probably than is good for any of us. One of those is my girlfriend. I love her to the point of doting. The other is split pea soup. I dote on that too.

So I combined to two last week and made what I’m now calling an “Anniversary Split Pea Soup.” Tuesday was our 2 year anniversary, but we were both pretty busy with work and school, so we put off the major celebrating for the weekend and simply made sure to see each other on Tuesday evening. (I mean, Tuesday was a really exciting day, what with a new president and all). I cooked dinner—and by cooked, I mean made split pea soup and my roommate baked some (admittedly dense) bread.

The recipe for the split pea soup? Really good. It came from Williams Sonoma’s Soup Cookbook, which is full of really good recipes and is gorgeous to look at. The soup itself? Needs some work. It was entirely too salty, which I’m just going to fix by using low sodium broth next time. I had to add some extra broth at the end because it was simmering off a little too quickly, and I think that’s where the salt went wrong. But I really enjoyed the texture, which was just the right mix of smooth puree and chunky soup. It was also really good the next day when I brought it to work for lunch. My favorite part was the diced pancetta I used in place of the bacon—it made a pleasant addition, texture-wise and had an impact on the taste as well. I will definitely make it again in the near future, and hopefully will remember to update my progress here!

3 comments:

pb said...

Soups are the new love of my culinary life - theyre so comforting and wholesome and capable of being manipulated to my needs. Also, they can be combined with many a delightful sort of bread, which is another major gastronomic indulgence of mine. I look forward to a new batch of soup and some deliciously low-fat but oh so yummy garlic infused bread. Yum!

Anonymous said...

I love white wines from Alsace, and sunrise over the Cascade peaks (I'm on the Left Coast.) And that split pea soup recipe. In fact, I found your blog because I don't have the WS Soup cookbook to hand and I was looking for the recipe.

Cheese or Death said...

TKS: I've never seen the Cascades, but I think I'd love them too. Welcome! I hope you enjoy my blog!
-Rachel