Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Keeping warm in the city of rain

It was another cold, wet day in Seattle, and I was thoroughly chilled to the bone by the time I got home from work, so it was easy to decide what to make for dinner: Colleen's Split Pea Soup and Drop Biscuits from The 30-Day Vegan Challenge! Once you make these biscuits, you'll never go back to purchasing a mix or tube o' biscuits again. This recipe is quick with minimal clean up - my kind of recipe! The soup on the other hand needs to cook for an hour so grab some carrots and hummus as a snack (or tortillas and salsa) before dinner to tide the family over until it's ready and then freeze leftovers so you have a quick meal the next time you need it!


Split Pea Soup

INGREDIENTS

2 cups green (or yellow) split peas
6 cups vegetable broth
1 medium yellow onion, diced
2 creamy yellow potatoes, diced
2 or 3 garlic cloves, pressed or minced
2 carrots, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
1/2 teaspoon: dried marjoram, dried basil, dried parsley, liquid smoke
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin, black pepper
Salt, pepper and nutritional yeast to taste

DIRECTIONS

Rinse the split peas, checking for any impurities, such as stones or residue.

Place all of the ingredients, except the salt and pepper, in a soup pot, and bring to a simmer. Cover loosely and cook until the peas are tender, 1 hour or longer. Check it every so often to make sure the liquid isn't evaporating too quickly. The flame should be low-medium.

The resulting soup should be thick and creamy, with the split peas quite broken down and mushy. Add salt and pepper to taste, and serve hot.




Drop Biscuits

INGREDIENTS

1 2/3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking paper
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup nondairy milk (I used almond milk)
1/3 cup canola oil or nondairy butter (I used Earth Balance)

DIRECTIONS

Preheat the oven to 475 degrees. Lightly grease a baking or cookie sheet.

In a large bowl, mix together the flour.baking soda, and salt until combined. Add the milk and butter and stir just until the dry ingredients are moistened. It will be very sticky and thick, not smooth like cake batter. Scoop 2 tablespoons of batter onto the cookie sheet for each biscuit, spacing the biscuits about 1 1/2 inches apart.

Bake until, the bottoms are golden brown, about 8 minutes. Serve hot.

With warm, stick to your ribs soup and melt in your mouth biscuits, all that's left is a little cuddle time in front of the fireplace.

As if cuddling by a fireplace could actually happen on a weekday...HA! Sadly, I had work to do and the rest of the family had Sports Center, Facebook and Madden commitments to follow through on but at least we had warm, full bellies to sustain us.

Here's to your good health!

2 comments:

Jen Treehugger said...

Split Pea Soup is one of my favourite soups - that bowl of your looks soooooo good.

Susan said...

Thanks! My BF is an omnivore and used to LOVE the Campbells soup version with ham (bleck). The liquid smoke and freshness of this recipe really does it for him so now this is his favorite. :)