Swedish Yellow Split Pea Soup and Red Lentil Soup

Thanks for keeping this little blog going. It's fun to see what yummy things you all are eating! Here are two of our favorites. They are super cheap, easy and healthy!

Swedish Yellow Split Pea Soup

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Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

50 mins

Total time

1 hour

Yellow pea soup is traditionally served every Thursday night in Sweden. If you’ve ever wondered why bags of yellow split peas are sold at IKEA, that’s why!

Recipe by:: Camilla

Recipe type: Soup

Serves: 6

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 2 cups chopped onions
• 1-1/2 cups chopped carrots
• ¼ tsp fine sea salt
• ¼ tsp freshly cracked black pepper
• 1-1/3 cups dried yellow split peas, rinsed
• 6 cups reduced-sodium ready-to-use vegetable or chicken broth
• ¾ cup water
• ¼ cup chopped fresh flat-leaf (Italian) parsley or dill, divided

Instructions

1. In a large saucepan, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add onions, carrots, salt and pepper; cook, stirring, for 6 to 8 minutes or until vegetables are softened.
2. Stir in peas and broth. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 35 to 40 minutes or until peas are very tender.
3. Transfer 1 cup of the soup solids to food processor. Add water and purée until smooth. Return purée to pan and stir in half the parsley or dill. Simmer, stirring often, for 5 minutes to blend the flavors, thinning soup with water if too thick. Serve sprinkled with the remaining parsley or dill.

*Sometimes we use celery in place of carrots and it turns out great. I don't always puree the soup either, it makes a mess, so I just use a potato masher in the pan and it works great.

Notes

Tip
* An equal amount of dried yellow lentils or green split peas may be used in place of the yellow split peas.
Storage Tip
* Store the cooled soup in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 days or in the freezer for up to 6 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator or in the microwave using the Defrost function. Warm soup in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat.

RED LENTIL SOUP

1 cup red lentils

1/4 cup rice

6 cups chicken broth

2 Tbsp. oil

1 medium onion, chopped

1/8 tsp. red pepper

1 small onion, chopped

Bring 6 cups of broth to boil and add lentils, onion, rice and seasonings. Simmer for one hour. Fry small onion in oil and pour over soup just before serving. Serve hot. 

*I haven't actually done that fried onion part. We also like to add some fresh parmesan cheese on top! Enjoy

Easy Yummy Bean Soup

A friend of mine just told me how to make this last week. She was watching our kids one evening at dinner time, and had made this soup that she said they loved. I couldn't believe how easy it was. While I was making it, I kept thinking, "This can't be good with such basic ingredients" . But it is.

Ingredients:

1lb package of dry beans-can be lentils, or a combination pack. I use a 15 bean bag.

1 package of hot dogs- The yummy kind.

1 link of sausage -I'm talking the big fat link sausage that's like 6-8" long and 1" thick

Directions:

1. Rinse the dry beans to eliminate any small stones or debris.

2. Place the beans in a large pot and cover them with 2" water.

3. Bring to full boil then turn down but keep it boiling for an hour to soften the beans. You may want to skim off some of the foam after a while.

4. Cut up the hot dogs and sausage and put them in with the beans. Let simmer for another 1 1/2 hours. Add water as necessary for desired thickness.

Enjoy!

Yummy Fall Dinner

I was given a butternut squash and didn't know what to do with it. One of the craft blogs that I like to look at The Feathered Nest had this butternut squash soap and bread on it. So we made it for dinner. Both were really good, even Robby liked them! The soup is full of flavor.

Butternut Squash & Corn Chowder

2 T vegetable oil
1 1/2 pounds butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cut into 1 inch chunks (about 5 cups)
1 medium onion, chopped
10 oz frozen corn, thawed
1 1/2 t curry powder
coarse salt and pepper
2 cans (14.5 oz each) vegetable broth
1/2 cup heavy cream

In a large heavy pot, heat oil over med-high heat. Add squash and onion. Cook until onion is soft, about 6 minutes. Add corn and curry powder and cook until curry is fragrant, about 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Add broth and simmer until squash is tender, about 25 minutes. In a blender, blend the soup until smooth, working in batches if you have to. Return to pot and stir in cream. Heat through but do NOT let it boil.

*I never have broth so I used chicken bullion and I didn't have curry so I used a little basil, still turned out great*

Artisan Bread
(14-20hours rising)


3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
¼ teaspoon instant yeast
1¼ teaspoons salt
1 5/8 cup water

1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.

2. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.

3. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.

4. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.

*After taking the lid off my pan my bread was done in 5 minutes, so I'd watch it close*

Yummy 15 Bean Soup

Disclaimer: This is not my recipe I just use the recipe off of the package of "Hurst's Ham Beens 15 Bean Soup Cajun flavor." It's a bag of dry beans that is usually around $1.00. It makes a ton of really good soup. It's awesome food storage. We have a lot of these dry bean soup packages in our pantry. Anyway, here's the recipe. If you can't read it, click on the picture and it will take you to the website. Oh, and there's alot more flavors than just "Cajun" That's just our favorite.
The package is just a bag of 15 different kinds of dry beans with a flavor packet in it. You don't have to use the flavor packet. You can add any flavors you like.

Potato Chowder Soup --Slow Cooked--

This has alway been one of my families favorites.

8 cups diced peeled potatoes
1/3 cup chopped onion
3 cans chicken broth
1 can condensed cream of chicken soup
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 8oz package cream cheese
1/2 lb. sliced bacon-cookd and crumbled
chives

In slow cooker, combine first 5 ingredients, cover and cook in low 8 hours or until potatoes are tender. Add cream cheese; stir until blended. Garnish with bacon and chives.
* I add the cream cheese an hour before serving *