Yes Peas! Healthy Pea Soup Recipe

Sorry, I couldn’t resist the cheesey title.

I’ve been feeling inspired to cook lately, and with the holidays over I find I actually have time on the weekends to visit the market, cook & try new recipes.

After posting my Grandma’s healthy rye bread (rogebrot) recipe I was reminded of another one of my favourite “Grandma recipes” – her Pea Soup.

This recipe is healthy & hearty, and perfect for during the winter months.

The base of this soup is dried split peas. Peas are a food that I think have been ignored in terms of their amazing health benefits:

-Peas are a legume, which means they’re high in fibre (good for proper digestion) and folic acid (important for women of child-bearing age)
-They’re a great vegetarian source of protein
-Great source of B vitamins & vitamin C – strengthens the immune system, which can help prevent the flu!
-High in minerals such as calcium, iron, copper, zinc, and manganese
-Rich in plant sterols, which helps lower bad cholesterol levels
-Great source of vitamin A, which is important for healthy eyes & skin

The original recipe calls for white potatoes, but I decided to sub in sweet potatoes (tasted the same!), which are high in fibre & less starchy, which means they don’t spike your blood sugar like regular white potatoes do.

If the man in your life isn’t excited about the idea of soup for dinner, don’t worry. This is one of my husband’s favorite meals because it includes sausage (all-natural, nitrate-free chicken/turkey sausages from Sausage King of course!), and pork (antibiotic & hormone-free).

That being said, if you’re a vegetarian or trying to cut back on your meat intake; you can make this soup vegetarian if you prefer. If you decide to skip the meat, I would recommend adding barley or whole-wheat noodles – combining a whole grain with a legume = a complete protein!

The peas take about an hour and half to soften so this soup is perfect to make on a Sunday afternoon while watching football (I’m really appealing to the men now!). Enjoy!

Grandma’s Pea Soup

Ingredients
1 large onion – diced
3 stalks celery – diced
3 large carrots – cut into rounds
2 small sweet potatoes – cubed
2 hormone & antibiotic-free pork/turkey/chicken sausages – de-cased
2 large hormone & antibiotic-free pork chops
2 cups organic veggie stock
1 organic chicken stock cube
2, 450g bags of green or yellow split peas
Salt & Pepper to taste

Method

Chop onion, celery, carrots and sweet potato. Rinse and drain peas. De-case sausages & rinse pork chops.

In a large pot, heat oil on medium heat and saute onions & sausage until browned (approx. 5 minutes). De-glaze pot with a splash of white wine or veggie stock.

Remove pot from heat, and fill with water until three-quarters full. Chop pork chops into small pieces.

Return to heat, add pork chops, chicken stock cube and bring to a boil. Once boiling, turn heat down and let simmer for 20 minutes. Add peas.

Simmer for 1 hour, or until peas are almost soft. Stir every 10-15 minutes to avoid peas sticking together.

Now add the vegetable stock, and chopped celery, carrots and sweet potato. Season with salt and pepper. Simmer for 20 minutes or until vegetables are cooked to your liking.

Allow soup to sit for at least an hour or overnight to give it time to thicken. Soup tastes good on day one, but it’s even better the next day – it makes amazing lunch & dinner leftovers.