Split pea and yam soup

Adapted from Straight Up Food

This is a vegan riff on a well-known favourite. We discovered this at Cathy Fisher’s wonderful Straight Up Food website. Cathy’s recipes and book are an excellent resource for no-oil vegans (plant-based whole foods diet), especially those who are just starting out on a vegan diet.

We’ve tweaked Cathy’s recipe to include additional vegetables, mushrooms and smoked paprika.

Time

1 hour 15 minutes total: 15 minutes attended, 1 hour unattended

Storage notes

Keeps in the fridge for up to 5 days. Freezes well for 3 months.

Difficulty

very easy

Yield

4000 g (servings 5 –8)

Ingredients

Weight

Volume

Procedure

Black beans, canned

800 g

2 cans

Strain the beans, reserving the liquid. Set beans aside.

Water or vegetable stock, with reserved bean liquid and liquid from tofu

2500 g

10 cups

Paprika, smoked

5 g

2 tsp

Oregano, dried

2 g

2 tsp

Cumin, ground

2 g

1 tsp

Celery seed, ground

1 g

¼ tsp

Pepper, white

1 g

¼ tsp

Fenugreek seed, ground

2 g

½ tsp

Bay leaves, fresh

1.2 g

2 medium

Chipoltle chilli powder (optional)

1.6 g

½ tsp

Combine in a 5-litre (quart) or larger casserole or stock pot over high heat.

Cover and bring to a boil.

Split peas, dried

500 g

2 cups

Add to pot.

Lower heat and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes. (Meanwhile, proceed with the next steps.)

Onion, diced

150 g

1 medium

Dry fry in a non-stick pan over low–medium heat until translucent, about 5 minutes. Stir frequently to avoid sticking, adding a small amount of water if necessary.

Garlic, finely chopped

20 g

5 cloves

Add to pan and continue to fry until the garlic is fragrant, about another 2 minutes.

Remove pan from heat and set aside.

Onions and garlic, from E

Carrot, halved lengthways and sliced

125 g

2 medium

Parsnips, halved lengthways and sliced

125 g

1 small

Celery, halved lengthways and sliced

150 g

2 medium ribs

Mushrooms, white button, quartered

300 g

3 cups

Potato, peeled and diced

250 g

1 large

Yam, peeled and diced

400 g

1 medium

Celeriac, peeled and diced (optional)

250 g

½ small

Add to pot with the split peas C and stir to combine.

Cover and bring to a boil over high heat.

Reduce heat and simmer until potatoes and yam are soft, about 15 minutes. Stir frequently.

Salt (optional)

8 g

1½ tsp

Tofu (firm), diced

250 g

1 block

Black beans, from A

Add to pot and stir to thoroughly combine.

Return to boil over hight heat, about 3 minutes.

Remove from heat.

Peas, frozen (optional)

200 g

1⅓ cup

Corn, frozen (optional)

200 g

1⅓ cup

Kale leaves, roughly chopped

300 g

2 bunches

Add to pot and stir to combine, pushing the leaves down into the pot. Continue stirring until the leaves are fully wilted, about 3 minutes.

Black pepper

to taste

Chives, finely chopped (optional)

5 g

5 tsp

Serve and garnish.

Original: 2010. Adapted: 2017.

Notes

The stirring is important as it breaks up the split peas slightly while ‘emulsifying’ the sauce. It also serves a secondary purpose of bringing down the heat of the pan—since everything is else is cooked, we don’t want the residual heat to overcook the vegetables and make them mushy.

Yukon Gold potatoes are Cathy’s favourite in this soup because they are buttery and creamy.

If you can get ‘English spinach’, it is superb in this soup. We even like the stems.

Fava beans (broad beans), blanched and podded, are a good substitute for all or part of the peas in this recipe. They pair well with the mushrooms and yam.

It is not necessary to peel the yam, potato and carrot. It works fine either way.

We use a fine microplane for the garlic, which is quick and effective and it will cook in a shorter time than finely chopped garlic. As little as 1 minute is required.

Other canned dry beans such as kidney beans, navy beans or pinto beans can be substituted for black beans in this recipe.

Making ahead

Peel and chop the onions and garlic.

Peel and chop the carrot and celery.

Chop the mushrooms.

Food pairings

Whole wheat bread.

Croutons.

Nutrition

Serving size 800 g; calories 615.9 kcal, kilojoules 2578.4 kJ, protein 33.4 g, carbohydrates 82.4 g, sugar 13.7 g, fat 5.3 g, saturated fat 0.9 g, unsaturated fat 2 g, trans fat 0 g, fiber 33.2 g, cholesterol 0 mg,

Type soup stew

Author bhsimon

Yield

Servings

–

Serving size 500–800 g

Serve	Per serve
Energy (kcal)	615.9
Energy (kJ)	2578.4
Protein (g)	33.4
Fat (g)	5.3
Carbs (g)	82.4
Sugars (g)	13.7
Fiber (g)	33.2
Sodium (mg)	1435.9
Cholesterol (mg)	0

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