Pea Soup

This is really cheap and (for those of us who like this sort of thing) really good. It makes a lot and you can eat it for days – especially if you serve it with rice or bread.

Ingredients

• One bag dried split peas.  Sometimes hard to find, but health food stores & ethnic stores usually have them.  
• One or two onions.  Again, in the summer you can use wild onions if you’re really broke.  Wild onions grow everywhere, they’re easy to find because they smell absolutely like onions & they’re safe to eat.  They’re really strong so just use a few.
• A couple carrots, as much celery as you have on hand.  These can be left out if you’re broke, but put them in if you have them because vegetables are good!
• Some sort of oil/fat – bacon grease is best, but any sort will do.
• Salt, pepper, a bay leaf if you have one.

Soak the peas for an hour or two if you remember to do this.  If you don’t, it’s cool, but soaking them cuts down on the cooking time.

Cut up the onions & all the other vegetables; cook them in the fat in a large pot over a medium heat for about five minutes.  Add salt, pepper, & the bay leaf if you have one.

Add about six cups of water and then the peas.  Heat to a boil.  Lower heat to a simmer and cook until the peas are soft – this will take maybe an hour, maybe two.  It might take longer.

When the peas are soft, use either an immersion blender or an actual blender to reduce the peas to a smooth consistence – if you use an actual blender, you’ll want to use a slotted spoon to take most of the peas out, putting them in the blender with just a little of the liquid, and then blend the mix to a smooth consistency. 

Then return it to the pot and heat to a simmer again.

Serve with rice, bread or maybe popovers.