Spanish Chickpea Soup

As I said in my last post, it's been a soup kind of week. I've been realizing that I love pressure-cooker recipes that don't call for soaking the beans ahead of time- it's rare for me to remember to, and I love the spontaneity of being able to throw a bunch of stuff in the cooker and have it do its thing while I work on other projects. This week I made a very rich and flavorful chickpea soup in the pressure cooker while I got a bunch of chores done and caught up with my dad on the phone.  This is another recipe that calls for meat, so I added some other ingredients to make it flavorful and still vegetarian. If you want to make a meat version, omit the smoked paprika, chipotle chilies, and tomato paste and add 4 ounces of diced spanish chorizo.

Spanish Chickpea Soup

adpated from Cooking Light, September 2010

2 tablespoon olive oil

1 onion, chopped

8 garlic cloves, minced

1 tsp smoked paprika

2 Tbs tomato paste

6 cups broth

1 1/2 cups dried chickpeas

2 chipotle chilies in adobo sauce, diced

2 bay leaves

6 cups chopped collard greens

1 tablespoon sherry vinegar

2 tbs red wine vinegar

salt and black pepper to taste

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper

Preparation

1. Heat a 6-quart pressure cooker over medium-high heat. Add oil to pan; swirl to coat. Add onion; sauté 3 minutes. Add garlic, smoked paprika, and tomato paste; sauté 2 minutes. Stir in broth, chickpeas, chipotle chilies, and bay leaves. Close lid securely; bring to high pressure over high heat. Adjust heat to medium or level needed to maintain high pressure; cook 1 hour. Remove from heat; let rest until cooker is depressurized (I waited 15 minutes). Remove lid. Discard bay leaves. Add collard greens and remaining ingredients, cooking uncovered for a few more minutes until the collards are wilted. Serve.

Pressure Cooker Black Beans

It's been a cold, cold week, and I've been making a lot of soup.
Earlier this week I made this recipe, but instead of using canned black beans, I made them in my pressure cooker. I made a double recipe of the soup so I would have enough to take dinner to my friends who've just had a baby. The black bean recipe I used called for 1 pound of dried beans, which cost about $1.40 and made about 7 cups of cooked beans. 7 cups of beans is a little less than 5 standard cans. The canned beans I normally use are about $2.00 each, which would have equaled about $10.00 just for the beans, so using a pressure cooker really is quite a savings. The other awesome thing about cooking beans at home is that you can season the beans any way you like, the texture of the beans is much better, and homemade beans usually have a lot less sodium than canned beans. The recipe I used calls for a ham hock(1 lb. if you are going to use this), which I don't eat. To give this vegetarian version a little more flavor, I added 2 tsp of smoked paprika, a few extra cloves of garlic, and a tsp of porcini mushroom powder (a great gift from my mom).
Easy Pressure Cooker Black Beans
adapted from foodnetwork.com

4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 medium onion, diced

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 tsp smoked paprika

1 tsp porcini powder

1 bay leaf

2 cups (about 1 pound) dried black beans, picked over and rinsed

6 cups water

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

In a 6-quart pressure cooker over medium-high heat, pour in 3 tablespoons oil. Add the onions and cook until they are golden, about 5 minutes. Throw in the garlic, smoked paprika, porcini powder, and bay leaf and cook for 1 minute more. Add the beans and give a good stir. Pour in the water; add the remaining tablespoon of oil, 1 tablespoon of salt, and a couple of grindings of pepper. Following the manufacturer's instructions, cover, lock the lid, and bring to high pressure. Lower heat to maintain pressure and start timing. Cook at high pressure for 25 minutes. Remove from heat and let rest for 15 minutes. Release the steam, again following the manufacturer's directions.Taste and adjust seasoning. Eat beans as they are or add to any recipe that calls for canned black beans.

Crafty Christmas

My newest goal (#47) is to try to do a better job of using/reusing things I already have before buying new things. I, like many people in the United States, tend to buy and accumulate way more things than I actually need. Sometimes, buying things makes me feel happy in the moment, but later I feel really disappointed in myself for spending money on junk I don't need, for contributing to poor working conditions by buying poorly made mass-produced crap, and for harming the environment by creating demand for a bunch of unneeded junk. Having excess stuff around also makes my house feel cluttered. I live in a small house, and the less stuff I have the more comfortable my environment is. I think it's fair to say that having a clutter-free house greatly contributes to my over-all sense of well-being.
The other positive side of this goal is that when I am trying to reuse the stuff I already have, I feel purposeful, creative, and often have a lot fun being crafty. Last night my niece and nephew and my dear friend Kim (their mother) and I made Christmas ornaments out of craft supplies that I already had on hand- colored paper, buttons, glue, and embroidery floss. I made several more ornaments today, and I also made a garland out of felt scraps. Now I have a bunch of really pretty and unique decorations for my tree and they're all made out of stuff I already had lying around my house!

Pressure Cooking

One of my goals for the year is to try making something in a pressure cooker that I received as a gift some 13 years ago and have never used. Pressure cookers have always been scary and fascinating to me- something I want to want to try, but have never quite gotten up the courage for.  Recently, I was buying a can of beans at the Co-op, and a volunteer cashier who knows I love to cook, looked disdainfully at my beans and said "Why are you buying these canned beans? They're a total waste of money and they don't taste good either".  She went on to tell me that she regularly cooks pots of beans in a pressure cooker and then freezes them to use in recipes. "I love cooking beans in my pressure cooker. They taste great and they're much cheaper", she explained. After she finished extolling the virtues of pressure cooking,  I made a mental note to drag mine out and take another look at it.  After all, beans are an excellent source of dietary fiber, and they are much cheaper, tastier, and healthier (usually much less sodium) when they are cooked from scratch. Cooking beans in a pressure cooker, rather than on the stove-top reduces their cooking time, and I've found that there are lots of recipes online that are one pot meals for pressure cookers. Essentially you throw a bunch of stuff in the pot, turn it on, and let it do its thing. I found the site hippressurecooking to be an especially good source of information. Wish me luck- I'm glad I have the brave Count Zachula by my side for this one!

7 Minute Lunchtime Salad

Today I came home to make a quick lunch before heading back to work for a meeting. I didn't have a lot of time, but I wanted to eat something fresh and reasonably healthy. I decided to throw together a quintessential NW pub salad (greens, fruit, nuts, and a little cheese. If you want to get really NW, you can throw on some smoked salmon too). For my salad I used fresh arugula dressed with a balsamic vinaigrette, nectarines, smoked almonds, and goat cheese. A salad like this will usually cost $12- $14 in a restaurant, but you can make it at home for next to nothing and in almost no time.

Arugula, Nectarine, and Smoked Almond Salad with Goat Cheese
serves 2
1 large bunch arugula, washed and torn into small pieces
balsamic vinegar
olive oil
salt and pepper
1 tsp jam (I used strawberry, but any kind is fine)
1 nectarine, sliced
1 handful smoked almonds, chopped
some crumbles of goat cheese for each salad

Pour a little balsamic vinegar into a large bowl. Add the jam, a few shakes of salt, and a few grind of pepper. Whisk together until jam is dissolved. Add a little olive oil in a stream and whisk until you have a desired consistency.  Place arugula in the bowl with the dressing and mix well with your hands or with salad tongs. Divide the dressed arugula between two plates. Top with nectarines, almonds, and goat cheese. Serve immediately.

Fallstalgia

Today I was so happy because...IT FELT LIKE FALL! Fall is my favorite time of the year, and it was nice to have an  unexpected fall-like day in the middle of the summer. Don't get me wrong, I've been loving the lovely, clear, sunny weather we've been having, but it was such a treat to have a reminder of a few fall things I really love- watching the rain through the windows, making soup, and cuddling with my sweetie under a warm blanket. For dinner, I made us a simple soup. This is a great soup if you're feeling under the weather or don't have a lot of time or energy but want something warm and delicious to eat.
Erin's Simple Rainy Day Soup
olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 carrots, finely chopped
2 potatoes, chopped into small pieces
3 bouillon cubes, dissolved in a little hot water
8 cups water
2 cans white beans, drained and rinsed
1 bunch spinach, sliced into ribbons
2 Tbs. fresh flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
fresh black pepper

Pour a little olive oil into a soup pot and heat over medium-high. Add the onions and saute until almost translucent. Next add the garlic. Saute briefly, then add the celery, and saute until celery is nearly soft. Add carrots and saute a few minutes more. Add the potatoes, dissolved bouillon, and the 8 cups of water. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer for 15 minutes or until all vegetables are soft enough to pierce with a fork. Add the beans, spinach, and parsley. Cook for 3 more minutes. Serve with lots of fresh-ground black pepper.

Goodbye Beer, See You In a Month

As much as I hate to do it, especially in the middle of the summer, I'm taking this opportunity to make Goal #29 giving up beer for one month. Although I really love beer, the kind of beer I like (microbrew IPA) is calorically dense (250-300 calories per 12oz beer) and relatively expensive. Since I am looking for ways to cut some unhealthy calories out of my diet, and also looking for ways to save money, this seems like a good two for one kind of goal. Tonight I'm going to visit the Co-op and stock up on lots of cold and fizzy drinks (carbonated water, kombucha, iced tea makings) so that I will have some good substitutes on hand for post yard-work summer days, which is when I think I'll probably miss beer the most.

Foraging For Wild Berries

This afternoon I went for a magical walk in Watershed Park. It was warm and sunny, and everything looked so lush and green. As I was walking, I suddenly had snacks on the brain (maybe that's the real reason I have Winnie the Pooh tattooed on my back, as like him, I am pretty much always thinking about food). Anyhow, as I rounded a corner, I saw something exciting-free snacks in the woods! A giant patch of wild salmon berries, ripe and ready to be picked, was right in front of me. For those of you who haven't tried salmon berries, they have a texture similar to blackberries, but a flavor that is very light and mellow by comparison. To me, they are to blackberries as white wine is to red wine.  I must have eaten almost a whole pint while I was on my hike. As I rode my bike home, I was also delighted to see all of the blackberry bushes in bloom, and fantasized about how many of those there would be to enjoy in a few short months. This is one of the things I really enjoy about living in the Pacific Northwest- lots of delicious berries to enjoy, and some of them can even be found for free.

Silly Kitchen Tip #1

Ok, this is a funny little post- not really about health or fitness, but I just wanted to share a kitchen tip that I learned a couple of years ago and use all the time. See how close that little hedgehog is to my kitchen sponge? That's because my kitchen sponge smells good enough to be that close. My kitchen sponge used to start smelling gross before it would wear out. I always felt bad about throwing it away and starting another one, but I also guessed that whatever was causing that smell wasn't good to be rubbing on my dishes and counter. I've never been able to get my dishes as clean with a dish cloth, so I wanted to keep using sponges, but I didn't want to be wasteful either. Happily, I learned that you can kill the bacteria that cause stinky-sponge by getting the sponge really wet and microwaving it for 3 minutes. Pretty cool, probably more sanitary, and makes sponges last a lot longer.

Easy Rice Noodle Salad

Last night I made this easy and tasty rice noodle salad. I've been trying to save money, and there was a bunch of reduced produce at the Co-op that I wanted to incorporate into a meal. This is kind of an amalgamation of lots of Thai and Vietnamese noodle salad recipes that I found online. You could use pretty much whatever raw vegetables you have on hand. You could also substitute a few ingredients in the sauce- I've made some suggestions below.

Easy Rice Noodle Salad
1 14oz package rice noodles
1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
3 carrots, shredded or peeled into strips with a vegetable peeler
4 Napa cabbage leaves, finely sliced
2 green onions, chopped
1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped
1 package baked tofu, cut into cubes
toasted peanuts for garnish

Sauce
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/3 cup fresh lime juice (could substitute all or part with rice wine vinegar)
4 Tbsp fish sauce (some recipes said to leave this out and add more tamari, I think you could also substitute broth for all or part of this)
2 Tbsp tamari
3 tsp sugar
1-2 tsp chili sauce (or 1/2 a fresh jalapeno, minced)

Start a large pot of water boiling. While you are patiently waiting for the water to boil, chop your vegetables and make your sauce. When the water has boiled, add the rice noodles. Allow them to cook for 2-3 minutes. Drain and rinse immediately with cold water. You can snip them with kitchen shears if you like shorter noodles, or you can leave them long for sloppy noodle slurping. Mix sauce with chopped vegetables and tofu in a large bowl. Add rice noodles and mix well, using your hands to get it all well mixed together. Serve topped with toasted peanuts.  Also makes plenty to take for lunch!

Free Workouts!

The other day I was wishing I had some new yoga DVDs to try out. Although I enjoy the few yoga DVDs I own, I have grown a little tired of them. As I think I mentioned in a previous post, I like to use yoga DVDs on days when yoga classes don't work with my schedule or when I am needing to be a little frugal. While watching a DVD at home is a totally different experience than attending a class, sometimes I really enjoy it, and it is definitely better than not doing yoga at all. I have been thinking about where I could look for some gently used yoga DVDs (Goodwill? Value Village? Garage sales?), and then thanks to some magnificent library staffer who put one of the DVDs pictured on the "Staff Picks" shelf, I realized that the library has tons of fitness DVDs that you can borrow for free! This evening I did the amusingly titled "Yoga For Surfers III" DVD, and it was a really challenging workout. I've had some friends tell me that they don't feel like they can afford to join a gym or attend fitness classes right now, so I wanted to give a shout-out to the library, where you can find lots of great yoga and other fitness workouts for free.

Easy Kale Salad

Today after yoga I REALLY wanted to go have a ridiculously unhealthy lunch. In fact I was fantasizing not only about eating something unhealthy for lunch, but also about having dessert afterwards!  Instead, because I am trying to stick to a plan of healthy eating and also trying to  save money by eating out less, I walked home and made myself a plate of healthy food- kale salad with fresh strawberries and pumpkin seeds, brown rice, and a salmon burger. This lunch didn't take long at all (thanks in part to Zach getting the rice started for me), and was relatively inexpensive and easy to make.
The salad pictured here is a staple for me- a basic kale salad that can be adapted to incorporate what you have on hand. The original recipe includes cheese, but I rarely use it because this salad tastes so good even without it. 100% of the people who rated this recipe said that they'd make it again- a pretty rare thing to see among the collection of recipes on epicurious. This dish is a winner, and my adapted version is below. Note that it makes a really huge salad- great to have on hand for lunches and also a nice dish for large dinner parties. It will keep for a few days in the refrigerator, but you can always 1/2 it if you don't want a lot of leftovers. As a note, I have always used regular balsamic vinegar (not white as recommended in the original recipe) with excellent results.

Basic Kale Salad
2 Tbs dried fruit or about 1/2 cup of diced fresh fruit
2 Tbs balsamic vinegar
1 Tbs rice vinegar
1 Tbs honey or agave syrup
1 Tbs olive oil
1 tsp salt
2 bunches Italian kale, leaves torn from stems and torn or cut into bite-sized pieces
2 Tbs nuts or seeds, lightly toasted and chopped if pieces are large
shredded Parmesan cheese (optional)
salt&pepper

Whisk balsamic vinegar, rice vinegar, honey or agave, olive oil, and salt in a large bowl. Add kale, fruit, and nuts; toss to coat. Let marinate for 20 minutes at room temperature for best flavor, tossing occasionally. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Sprinkle shredded parmesan on top (if desired) and give it a final stir before serving.

The Set Up

This morning I woke up super early and decided to take advantage of this by getting my salad veggies ready for the week.  I think this is one of the simplest things I do that greatly improves my diet. Having all of the fixings for salads ready to go makes it so much easier to make a healthy choice for lunch or dinner. I often will top my salad veggies with some beans or fish, a little cooked grain (brown rice or quinoa) if I have it, maybe throw on a little cheese or a few nuts and call it a meal.

I actually really enjoy the time I spend setting up my salads for the week. I often put on some nice music and think of it as my time to relax and  make my health a priority. A few kitchen things things that are key: a salad spinner for quick and easy lettuce cleaning, a sharp chef's knife, a large cutting board, and a few containers for storing veggies. Total time to get my salad stuff ready for the week was 45 minutes- an amount that I could easily spend online or watching television. Those things are not always a bad way to spend time, but once a week, it definitely pays off to spend my time doing something that makes the rest of my week healthier and easier.

Sunday Night Dinner

Tonight for dinner I made a variation of the Black Bean Soup recipe that I posted a few weeks ago (I used cubes of yam instead of carrots this time), along with a crispy romaine and arugula salad that I topped with red peppers, avocado, and a garlicky yogurt and cilantro dressing. The salad was really the star of the show here, due to both the freshness of the vegetables and the (may I say) amazing dressing I whipped up in just a few minutes.
The dressing was super easy and is as follows:

Garlicky Yogurt and Cilantro Dressing
1 cup non-fat yogurt
1/2 cup (or more) cilantro leaves
2 large cloves garlic, cut into pieces
drizzle of oil oil
salt to taste

Puree everything except salt in a food processor. Add a pinch of salt at a time, distributing evenly over the top, puree, and taste, adding more salt as desired. Keep in mind that the dressing is very garlicky and will get spicier as it sits.

Additions that would probably be good: 1/2 tsp cumin, lime juice and/or zest, a pinch of chili powder

Beautiful Golden Soup

I made a new lentil soup a few days ago. I wanted to try using just red lentils for a creamier texture. I also wanted to try out some new spices- turmeric, paprika, and cinnamon. Zach described the flavor as "meaty", which I think comes in part from the spiciness of the garlic. At any rate, it turned out really well and made a nice big pot which will give me lots of lunch for my freezer.

Beautiful Golden Soup

3 tbs olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
9 cloves of garlic, chopped finely
3 carrots, thinly sliced
3 celery stalks, thinly sliced
3 cups red lentils
9 cups stock or bouillon+water
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp cinnamon
salt and pepper to taste
1 bunch rainbow chard, leaves removed from stems and sliced into ribbons
juice of 1/2 an orange
juice of 1/2 a lemon

Saute the onion and garlic in the olive oil. Once they are softened, add carrots and celery and saute for a few minutes more. Add the lentils, stock, and spices. Bring to a boil and turn down to a simmer. Allow to cook for 5 minutes. Add the chard and cook for 5 more minutes, stirring occasionally. Add citrus juices and serve, topped with fresh pepper.

Lunch Bag

My Aunt Becky sent me this adorable lunch bag as a gift a few years ago. It's so pretty and sweet, and it's also very functional. It does a great job of keeping my lunch stuff all organized, and since I walk much of the time, it's also great to have an insulated bag with a zipper to keep my sometimes leaky lunch contained. Thanks Aunt Becky, I love it.

Spicy Black-Eyed Pea and Coconut Soup

It was barely 30 degrees by 10am this morning, and I wanted to make something spicy to warm myself up from the inside. I don't eat spicy foods very often. I usually feel overly warm, and spicy foods tend to exacerbate this. But even I get cold when it's this cold outside, and the recipe below did a great job of warming me up.

This soup is quick and easy to make. It contains coconut milk, which I don't cook with too often because it is high in saturated fat. I used "light" coconut milk (which just means it's been watered down) in my soup. If you want a richer, creamier soup and you don't care about the fat, you could use regular coconut milk. The recipe also has cooked brown rice stirred in at the end. I often have some extra cooked brown rice on hand, so that was an easy addition for me. If you don't have any, just skip the rice, it's still good without it.

Also, since I have a pretty low tolerance for spiciness, I've given some options in the recipe to increase the spiciness. If you don't have Muchi curry powder, use regular curry powder and add something else spicy (more jalapeno, some Sriracha, etc) to give it more heat.

Spicy Black Eyed Pea and Coconut Soup
adapted from the African Curried Coconut Soup recipe on epicurious

3 tbs olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 red bell peppers, chopped
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and finely chopped (optional- for people who like extra spicy food )
5 large cloves garlic, chopped
5 cups broth (I used bouillon dissolved in water)
2 15oz cans black-eyed peas, drained and rinsed
1 15oz can diced tomatoes with chipotle peppers
1 tsp Muchi (spicy) curry powder (or more if you like spicy food)
1/2 tsp salt, or to taste
black pepper to taste
1 small bunch kale, washed and torn into small pieces
2 cans light coconut milk
1 cup cooked brown rice
5 tbs cilantro, chopped
juice of one lime

In a large soup pot, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onions and peppers, and cook, stirring, until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook, stirring constantly for one minute. Add the broth, black-eyed peas, tomatoes, curry powder, salt, and black pepper; bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to simmer and cook for 5 minutes. Add kale, stir, and continue cooking for 5 more minutes. Stir in coconut milk, lime juice, cilantro, and rice, and cook until heated through, about 3 more minutes. Serve.

Vegetable Soup

Today I made a basic vegetable soup, and thought I'd share the recipe. I love tomatoes, so when I make vegetable soup I usually like to add a can of them.  If you're not a fan, you could make this without tomatoes and substitute broth for the water so that the soup still retains a nice, rich flavor. I also had a friend tell me recently that he can't eat garbanzo beans because they give him such bad gas. If you have the same problem, I'd suggest substituting Cannelini beans. Since Cannelini beans are so much softer than garbanzos, I'd recommend adding them when you add the green beans and zucchini. Also, I like the greens beans and zucchini to be a little al dente, so if you like your vegetables more "cooked-down" (as we say where I'm from), add them at the same time as the potatoes.


Erin's Basic Vegetable Soup

2 tbs olive oil
1 onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
3 stalks celery, thinly sliced
2 carrots, chopped into small pieces
2 medium sized potatoes, chopped
2 cups broth
6 cups water
1 28oz can crushed tomatoes (I used fire-roasted since that's what I had on hand)
2 cans garbanzo beans
2 teaspoons of dried herbs that you like (I used a combination of basil, oregano, and thyme)
1 tsp black pepper
2 cups green beans that have had tough ends removed and are cut into small pieces
1 small zucchini, chopped into small pieces
1 bunch spinach sliced into ribbons
salt and pepper to taste
parmesan (optional)


Heat the olive oil in a large soup pot. Add the onions, garlic, carrots, and celery. Saute until the vegetables are soft and fragrant. Add the potatoes, broth, water, tomatoes, garbanzo beans, dried herbs, and pepper. Bring to a boil. Turn heat down to low and simmer (covered) for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the green beans and zucchini. Cover and simmer for another ten minutes. Add spinach and continue cooking, covered for 7 more minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve with a little sprinkle of parmesan cheese on top if you are so inclined.

Freezing Soup

In order to help me stay on track with taking lunch, I thought it would be helpful to start freezing some of the soup I make. That way, I can be sure to have plenty of variety, and have some ready to go when I need it. In the past when I've frozen soup, I used plastic freezer containers with screw-on lids. As I said in a previous post, I'm trying to avoid eating out of plastic when possible, so I want to freeze in glass. I looked at some freezer-safe glass bowls with locking lids recently at a housewares store and they were $9 each! That's a little steep for my budget, so I decided to ask some of my co-workers (many of whom are avid food preservers) for advice. Everyone I talked to said that freezing in glass canning jars usually works fine as long as you observe the following rules:

1. Cool the soup before filling the jars
2. Leave at least an inch of head room at the top
3. Screw the lids on gently and don't over-tighten
4. Don't try to freeze cream-based soups in glass

One co-worker mentioned that she has occasionally had a jar shatter in the freezer, so I think I will store them in some kind of tub to contain the mess if this happens. The jars I'm using are Ball wide-mouth pint jars, and they do say "freezer safe" on the package. At $13 for a case of twelve, glass jars are going to be a much more cost effective solution for me, and I hope they will help me keep up with my goal of taking a healthy lunch.

Another Soup Recipe

I made Split Pea soup for the first time as part of my effort to have soup to take for lunch. Lentil soup has been a standby for me for years, but for some reason, I've always felt intimidated by split peas. Maybe it's because I'm mostly vegetarian, and the majority of split pea recipes call for ham bones or bacon. Anyhow, I found a vegetarian split pea recipe at poorgirleatswell.com, tweaked it a little to suit my own taste, and it's pretty good. It is also incredibly cheap to make.

One of the things that's so cool about the poorgirleatswell blog is that she does a cost analysis of each recipe and tells you how much it costs per serving. In her original recipe, each serving costs only $.33! She has a lot of great, healthy, easy to make recipes on her blog and includes nice step-by-step photos.

This soup takes a little more effort than the lentil soup I usually make since you have to take half of the split peas out and puree them. If you have an immersion blender that would make things easier, but a blender works fine, it just involves some clean-up afterwards. When I make this again, I'm going to add some collards near the end to make it a little more nutritious, so I've included that step in the recipe below.

Smoky Split Pea & Carrot Soup

1 lb dried split peas, picked over & rinsed

8 c water

2 T olive oil

4 large cloves of garlic, minced

1 large yellow onion, diced

2 t sea salt

1 t ground black pepper

1/2 t ground cumin

1/2 t smoked paprika
3 carrots, diced
1/2 bunch collard greens, stems removed, leaves cut into ribbons

1. In a large soup pot, heat the olive oil and add the garlic & onion. Add 1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper, cumin& smoked paprika and cook over medium heat until fragrant and the onion becomes translucent. Next, add the carrots and cook for about 2 minutes, until they begin to soften. Add the peas and 4 cups of water and bring to a low boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for about 20 minutes, or until the peas have softened and much of the water has been absorbed.

2. Remove about half the soup and set aside. Add the remaining 2 cups of water to the soup pot along with the collard ribbons and allow the soup to continue cooking. Using a blender, carefully puree the set-aside soup until smooth.

3. Return the pureed soup mixture to the pot and stir until well combined. Taste the soup and add remaining salt and pepper if needed. You may also want to add more smoked paprika if you like a smokier, spicy soup. If the peas aren't quite cooked, you can continue simmering and add more water as needed, adjusting seasonings to taste as needed. Serve with some freshly ground pepper on top.