split pea soup with tempeh bacon

Happy belated new year!  Chris and I were pretty low key again this year and fell asleep before the clock struck midnight.  Pretty fun and crazy, eh?  We also had a great Christmas Eve dinner with family and everything on the menu turned out really well.  Everyone actually enjoyed the mostly-plant based menu. Prepping for two days straight really paid off  It’s been pretty chilly around here so I’ve been making lots of different comforting soups.  Did everyone have a nice holiday? It goes by so quickly…

Chris got me a nice little lighting station so now I can take pictures in the dark I won’t have to worry about trying to take food photos when I usually leave the house in the dark and come home when it’s dark.  Yay!  I just have to get some textured backgrounds and another external light to help balance any shadows.

He also got me this stylish hat.

Another thing I am very excited about is this new Breville food processor.  I compiled some xmas money and coupons to get this beauty…

It is so much bigger than our older one.  Sorry Cuisinart, you’ve given us a great six years of processing but it is time for an upgrade. So far I’ve made a few things in it and love it!  It is super powerful and versatile.  The real test will be shredding cabbage for fermenting.  No more fights with the mandoline for me!

Back to the soup challenge…Veganomicon is one cookbook that we really love and it has a fabulous selection of soups and stews.  This split pea soup is warm, comforting and very filling since the split peas boast a whopping 16 grams of fiber and protein per serving. Score!  I experimented with some tempeh bacon to replace the ham in the usual split pea soup. I also want to try to make this soup in the crock pot since the dried peas take quite a bit of time to soften.

Split Pea Soup with Tempeh Bacon

I used this tempeh bacon recipe. Instead of soy sauce I used Bragg’s liquid aminos and left out the liquid smoke.  I doubled it and used 2 boxes of 5-grain gluten free tempeh. If using a dehydrator for this recipe, just make sure to do this step a day ahead.  I like to throw things in the dehydrator before going to bed at night because when you wake up it’s already done.

For the soup:

• 3 tbsp coconut oil
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2 carrots, peeled and diced
• 2.5 quarts water
• 1 pound dried split peas
• 1-in cube fresh ginger, peeled
• 1 bay leaf
• 4 tsp fresh thyme (or 2 tsp dried)
• 1 tsp dried tarragon
• 1/2 tsp coriander (rounded tsp)
• 1/2 tsp cumin (rounded tsp)
• 1 (16-oz) bag frozen green peas
• 2 roasted red peppers, diced
• 1.5 tsp sea salt
• black pepper

Simple, delicious and very comforting.

Whew, it’s off to bed for me.  I can’t seem to stay up past 9:30/10!

Did you get anything nice for the holiday?  Any fun New Year’s celebrations?

Tagged as: soup