Almost Vegan Spilt Pea and Turnip Soup { Recipe Series }

There's nothing better than a nice bowl of hot soup to warm you on a cold Winter day. I came up with this recipe after searching the internet for how to make the perfect bowl of split pea soup. I took the best parts of about a dozen different results and substituted turnips for potatoes to give it a little zip. The barley is not only a great source of nutrition, it helps to thicken the soup.

I call this recipe "almost" because substituting vegetable broth for the chicken broth will make the recipe vegan. This recipe serves at least 8 - 10 people. Eat it all week or freeze the extra for later. Although the instructions call for using a crock pot, you can easily make this on the stove in a nice big stock pot.


Almost Vegan Split Pea and Turnip Soup

1 (16 oz.) package of dried split peas
2 (32 oz.) cartons of chicken or vegetable broth
1 medium sized turnip diced (aka rutabaga)
1 medium sized onion diced
3 medium sized stalks of celery diced
4 medium sized carrots peeled and sliced
1/2 cup quick barley
3/4 cup fresh parsley minced
2 cloves garlic finely diced
2 Tbsp. good olive oil
1 tsp. dried oregano
1 tsp. dried thyme
1 tsp. ground pepper
1 dried bay leaf
Salt to taste

Soak peas overnight in water to soften. Drain and rinse. Place the peas in the bottom of a large crock pot and add the 2 cartons of chicken stock, barley, diced turnip, carrots, oregano, thyme, parsley, bay leaf and pepper. In a pan over medium heat saute onion and celery in 2 Tbsp. olive oil until translucent. Add garlic, season with salt to taste and continue to saute until garlic is heated but not burned. Add onion, celery and garlic mixture to the rest of the ingredients in the crock pot. Stir to mix everything and place cover on the crock pot. Heat on high for 4 - 5 hours or until peas and turnip are soft. Allow soup to cool, remove bay leaf and safely blend several ladles at a time in a food processor to combine all the flavors. Serve and enjoy!

As a way to add more flavor to the soup, (and really NOT make it vegan) you can go to you local butcher and ask for a ham bone. They normally leave quite a bit of meat on them. Place it in the crock pot with the rest of the ingredients. The meat will cook and combine with the soup. Remove the bone before processing.

Add a nice piece of crusty bread for dipping or serve with home made croutons on top.

Happy cooking,