How to Make and Enjoy a Hearty Soup

By DanielDB, 27th Dec 2010 | Follow this author | RSS Feed | Short URL http://nut.bz/1vmshtns/
Posted in Wikinut>Guides>Recipes>Classics

One time or the other in our lives, we enjoyed a hearty soup made only like Grandma could. For many of us soup was a staple food when we were little. No wonder that even the food critics hail soup as the most wholesome and digestible form of food. Therefore, soup is number one on the menu of special feeding programs, for instance for the poor.

Split Pea Soup

Traditionally soup is associated with winter or cold, miserable weather and it is the appropriate time to make a hearty, one-pot meal as it is also known. But, soup can be enjoyed all year through. Unlike modern times with everything being instant-magic, even our meals and this include our soups; making soup in the olden times was a skill and a time-consuming act of love. And whilst the pot of soup was simmering on the coal stove on its way to perfection, Grandma was baking her own yeast bread which was served piping hot, laden with golden butter! Fortunately during those times discussions about cholesterol were not allowed in good company!

Did I stir up your culinary senses yet? OK, so here is the recipe for a traditional Split Pea Soup:

Ingredients
• 3 rashers streaky bacon; rind removed and diced
• 1 large onion; peeled and chopped
• 2 medium carrots; peeled and chopped
• 500 g dried split peas
• 2.5 litre vegetable stock (Here you must spare a thought for Grandma – she made her own vegetable broth)
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce

Preparation
1. Place the bacon in a large heavy-based saucepan and cook over medium heat until fat is cooked out.
2. Add the onion and carrots and simmer until the fat of the bacon has been absorbed.
3. Add the peas and stock and bring to boil. Season lightly with the salt and pepper. Cover and bring down heat to allow it to simmer for at least two hours. (Remember what I said, it was (still is) a time consuming act of love!)
4. Remove from stove and allow cooling; then pressing through a sieve or process in a blender.
5. Add seasoning again to taste and add Worcestershire sauce.

Warm it up again and enjoy with bread or croutons.

Word-of-mouth has it that this hearty dish of dried peas and cured pork originated in England way back in the Middle Ages!

Meet the author

DanielDB
I was born in 1954. After finishing high School I obtained a Bachelor’s degree with history and International Politics as majors.

After graduation I joined the Public Service and served for more than