Wednesday, January 11, 2017
Mixed Reviews
I made some split pea soup for dinner tonight, mostly because I had all the ingredients on hand and no other brilliant ideas for dinner.
I don't think I've ever made split pea soup before. In fact, I'm not sure I've ever actually eaten it before.
I used a recipe from Christopher Kimball (of America's Test Kitchen fame), and it was okay. Not being an authority on split pea soup, I don't know if mediocre is all I can expect from it (I suspect this is the case, seeing as the main ingredient is, well, dried peas), or if it was the recipe, but I wasn't overwhelmed by the taste sensation.
Apparently, neither was Cubby.
He was halfway through his bowl of soup when he announced, "I'm going to have seconds of this. It doesn't taste perfect, but it feels good in my tummy."
Yeah. Sounds about right to me.
P.S. Any mediocre soup dinner can be salvaged by cornbread. Good thing I made some. It was a good call. Everyone kind of grudgingly ate their (single) bowl of soup, but everyone wanted seconds of the cornbread. Life lesson: Always make cornbread with soup. It ends the meal on a happy note and makes everyone forget about the soup, especially if it was forgettable to start with.
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8 comments:
And add a little ham to the soup? Mary in MN
I second adding ham to the soup for flavor.
And, a cube of chicken or ham bouillion can
work wonders as well.
Good idea about the cornbread. Do you crumble
yours up in the soup and eat it that way?
I don't like the way ham gets soggy if you leave it in long enough to get flavor from it. I like to use a smoked ham hock for the broth starter, then add some crisp bacon right at serving, like you would for a potato soup. Split pea is my favorite, but my family only eats it because...bacon.
Okay, so I think based on these suggestions it's just split pea soup isn't that exciting. I did use a ham bone, albeit one with not a ton of meat on it (maybe it would be better with a lot more ham added, but then it would be ham soup, right?), and homemade ham stock and homemade duck stock, AND I crumbled cooked bacon on top per the recipe. The bacon was the best part. I'd rather just eat scrambled eggs and bacon. Less work, too.
Tammy: Nope, we don't crumble it on top. We eat it in wedges with lots of butter and honey or maple syrup. Basically dessert.
Once I cooked a parsnip with the peas. Germans are big on adding root vegetables. It truly made the soup much better.
Try using a recipe that includes potatoes and carrots--that can make a big difference.
Split pea soup should be really thick, almost the consistency of applesauce, and it should be full of ham, enough so a bowl of soup includes what would be a healthy (meaning large) serving of ham if eaten as sliced meat on a plate.
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