Split Pea Soup

Finally, I have found a split pea soup that is the same as one I had years ago. It was cooked on a cast iron cookstove in the 1886 Liberty Corner area at Conner Prairie Interactive History Park where I work. We used ingredients fresh picked from the garden. No soup until now has tasted as good and I think those fresh ingredients were key to the flavor. I have tried commercial split pea soups, both organic and non-organic and they just did not taste good.

The split peas came from Earth Fare, a grocery store whose produce comes within 100 miles of the store. Although they are not quiet in season, it is a good start especially for $1.69 for a pound (which was all I needed).

The carrots were also organic, costing $2.99 for a bag, which I used around a quarter of one bag. The rest will be great cut up in my lunches for this week.

The spices, thyme, oregano, salt, and bay leaf, were already in my cabinet and should be common in most homes. Therefore they cost me nothing for this soup.

I grow my own onions, they are called walking onions and are small but strong. This soup needed one large onion, so I used a few on my smaller onions. I do not put pesticides on them, so they should be just as good as certified organic onion. In fact they are probably better.

Walking Onions

The chicken stock was the Earth Fare brand and organic. It is on my to do list to make my own stock, but since my experiment has not officially begun, I will allow the store bought stock. It cost me $2.28 per bottle and the soup used two.

Finally, I used butter as the fat. All I have in the house is Land O Lakes stick butter, not organic or grass-fed. It works for now and did not cost me anything.

So how much did this soup cost me?
Split peas (1.17lb) ..................$1.98
Carrots.....................................$0.75
Chicken stock..........................$5.31
Spices, onion, butter................$0.00

Total: $8.04

There are probably 10 servings of soup, therefore it is about $0.80 per serving. That is about the same price as Ramen but it tastes a TON better and is good for you!

YUM!!!

I plan to revisit this recipe this fall, and recalculate the expenses with homemade stock and organic grass fed butter. It will be interesting to see the differences.

Green Soup - A Good Start

So I decided that this summer would be a good time to learn how to cook new things that I would want to make this fall. A few weeks ago I got the book Ladled by Kimberly Harris which is turning out to be pretty neat so far. Today I made her (Dark) Green Soup.

The ingredients: butter, onion, garlic, kale, chicken stock, potato, thyme, spinach, heavy cream, and lemon juice.

It went together alright. I did not make the chicken stock myself, so that goes against the guidelines for this fall. It think it is ok for now, as I am easing myself into this project. Something of note, is that I have never had onions make my eyes water that much, ouch!!

The kale and spinach cooked down well, but not as much as expected. The potatoes also did not turn to much as I had hoped. Therefore, I got the food processor down to use as I could not find the top to the blender in the cabinet. Poring the soup in created a mess, but not as much as the food processor not being water tight. I would post a picture of the mess but that was not my priority :) .

The end result was a smooth soup. I like the lemon juice, as it adds more flavor. I think I put a little to much in though. I wish the soup was thicker, so I should add more potato next time. Overall it turned out good, pretty delicious actually. A good way to get green vegetables in.

I complemented the soup with organic apple sauce (only ingredient is apples), 2% unhomogenized milk, and some rosemary and olive oil crackers (unbleached wheat flour, semolina flour, water, olive oil, rosemary, sea salt). I think this is a good start in eating unprocessed and trying new foods.