Split Pea & Cabbage Soup

Cooking (and eating) is one of my favorite things to do. I wish I could be one of those people that eats solely to fuel their bodies, but I mostly eat because I love food, everything about it.

I stayed home from work last night to spend some time with my family and process the huge blow that hit us yesterday. I needed something productive to do … productive and calming. Cook.

I’ve had a bag of dried split peas hanging out in my house for months that I haven’t had a clue what to do with. I went on a kick several months ago where I discovered dried beans were the best thing on earth and I bought a bag of every kind I could find. I’ve never even actually eaten a single “split pea” in my entire life … but I bought some.

I ran across this picture on Food Gawker a couple weeks ago and something about it appealed to me.

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Since I had the time I made my version of this soup for dinner last night. (Original recipe)

Ingredients:

7 cups water
1 cup dried split peas
2 baking potatoes
2 stalks celery (sliced thin)
1 onion (I used purple)
minced garlic
4 cups broth
1 carrot (I got creative and used Honey Glazed frozen carrots)
1/2 head of cabbage, chopped to bite sized

1. Boil split peas in 7 cups water for 10 minutes. Add cubed potatoes and boil another 20 minutes.
2. Sauté onion, celery, carrots and garlic in olive oil in seperate pot.
3. Add broth to onion mixture and warm.
4. Pour the 2 pots together into one and blend using an immersion blender (or puree half in a food processor or blender). I left a few big chunks.
5. Add cabbage to soup and boil gently until cabbage is soft, about 15 minutes.
6. Season with salt, pepper, and whatever spices you like. I used some italian seasoning as well as chicken bullion.

I had some of this sausage that I got on sale at Publix last week for $.74 each, I added it to the mix and OMG!

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The sausage is a must in my opinion!

I served it with homemade buttermilk cornbread from what I am convinced is the best cornbread recipe EVER!

Soup and cornbread makes everything just a little bit better.