Split Pea Soup with Kale & Andouille Sausage

If you've been following this blog since it's start, a mere month or two ago, you are probably starting to notice that we like soup in this house, a lot.  When the weather turns cold and the winter rain starts here in the Bay Area, soup becomes a weekly staple in our house.  Actually, we eat quite a bit of it in the spring, summer and fall too.  There is just something about a bowl of delicious soup that makes you feel good.  Cold soup, hot soup, it doesn't matter, soup is just plain good for the soul.  Pancho and I are avid Top Chef fans, and we've noticed that anytime someone makes a soup, they almost always end up winning that challenge.  So it's not just us, it appears that every one goes nuts for a good soup.

Tomato soup has always been my favorite.  Throw a grilled cheese sandwich on the side and I am instantly transported back to the winter weekends of my childhood, when after a morning spent playing in the snow my mom would make us grilled cheese & tomato soup before sending us back out to enjoy the winter wonderland that is New Jersey in winter.  It was awesome then, and still one of my favorite weekend lunches, even though there is no snow to be found where I now live in California.  I make a killer roasted tomato & red pepper soup that has reigned supreme at the top of my favorite soup list for quite a while, that is until this past fall, when I came across a little split pea soup recipe in Bon Appetit.

I've always liked split pea soup, and this recipe seemed simple enough, so I figured I would try it out.  There weren't many ingredients, it took like 30 minutes to make, and the recipe was so straight-forward I didn't really tweak it at all.  When it was done, it smelled pretty darn good, and looked delicious.  My husband and I sat down with a bowl of it for dinner and... it was fantastic.  So, so good.  My roasted tomato soup was dethroned, I had a new favorite.  Since discovering it in early fall I've probably made it a half dozen times and Pancho and I are still in love with it.  It's got kale & andouille sausage in it, 2 twists on the traditional recipe which give this soup great flavor and texture.  I've started keeping dried split peas in the house at all times, along with Aidell's Andouille Sausage in the freezer, so that I can make this soup at a moments notice.  Luckily we eat a lot of greens around here too, so I always seem to have some kale or mustard greens in the fridge.  That's basically it for ingredients- split peas, andouille sausage, kale & chicken broth.  So simple to make, really inexpensive, and crazy delicious.  The judges on Top Chef are right, a delicious soup is a winner!

Split Pea Soup with Kale & Andouille Sausage
1 16-ounce bag dried green split peas
1 package Aidell's Andouille Sausage
8 cups (or more) chicken broth
5 bay leaves
4 to 5 cups chopped kale (chopped into thin strips)
Salt & Pepper

1. Cook the Split Peas with the Sausage.  Combine the split peas, the whole sausage links, 8 cups of chicken broth, and the bay leaves in a large heavy pot. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring often. Cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer until the peas are tender, 30 to 35 minutes.
2. Take out the Sausage & Cut Up.  Once the peas are done, remove the sausage links from the soup and place on a cutting board.  Careful, they will be very hot.  Cut the links lengthwise in half, then crosswise into 1/4-inch-thick half-rounds.
3. Puree the Soup.  Remove the Bay Leaves from the soup and puree using an immersion blender.  If you don't have an immersion blender you can use a regular blender.  Puree the soup one cup at a time in your blender, and then return the pureed soup to the original pot.
4. Add the Sausage and Greens.   Add the sliced sausage half-rounds back in to the soup pot and then add in the thinly sliced greens.  If the soup is really thick you can add more broth to thin it out to the consistency you like.  Simmer the soup until the greens soften, 3 to 4 minutes. Season with a little salt and pepper.
5. Serve!  Serve pipping hot with some thick crusty bread or with some croutons sprinkled on top.  Prepare for people to want seconds, it's crazy delicious.

Epicurious.com is home to the Original Recipe.  it is recopied here, almost exactly.  There are only two things I do differently- I take out the Bay Leaves before I puree the soup and rather than using a traditional blender to puree it, I just use my immersion blender right in the soup pot.  Much faster & easier than transferring to a blender and then returning the soup to the original pot, and less clean-up afterwards.  I've mentioned it before, but if you don't have an immersion blender, put one on your list for Santa this year.  It's one of the kitchen tools I just couldn't live without.

Bon Appetit!

Roasted Squash Soup

I know, I know, the last thing the world needs is another recipe blog, but hey, Internet space is free, and my husband has been after me to write my recipes down for years now, so I figure, what the hell, I'll join the masses and put my recipes online.

I'm not much of a writer, but I am a passable home cook, or at least I like to think so. Hopefully, if anyone else actually reads this blog they will look past my clumsy writing skills and focus on the food instead. Although, I should warn any potential readers- I may not prove to be much of a recipe creator either. Normally when I am in the kitchen I don't pay to much attention to quantities, amounts, etc. We'll just have to see how it goes.

I love to cook, for a lot of reasons. I love the creative outlet, taking individual items and putting them together to create something more. I love the feeling of seeing others enjoy something that I took time and care to make. But most of all, I love how when I am cooking I am in complete control of what's going on. I know, no matter what, that when I add A to B I will get C, without fail. With all the uncertainty swirling around life, the kitchen is my haven. When there's chaos, I retreat to my stove top & oven. I make bread, or soup, rack of lamb or a cake, because within the steps of a recipe I find order, peace and security.

My baby brother, Adam, is moving to New York City. He leaves tomorrow morning. Minus the 4 years I was away at college, we have never lived more than 20 minutes apart.  That's over 30 years of having my brother within a few minutes reach. Like every brother & sister since the beginning of time, we haven't always gotten along, but I have always loved him, and always will. Even when I want to kill him, I've always known he was right down the road when I need him. I hope he feels the same about me. He is moving to New York to start an exciting new chapter in his life.  He's getting married to a great girl, who I really like, and I couldn't be happier for them.  That being said, to say that I am a wreck over his leaving is quite an understatement. I haven't been able to stop crying since Friday evening when we got together for one last dinner. My turmoil has been a boon for my husband though, since I've pretty much spent the last 2 days in the kitchen, keeping my mind off my brother's leaving.

It's been raining all weekend, the weather practically demanding I make soup.  Yesterday morning I stopped at my local produce stand (Dan's Fresh Produce for those of you in the Bay Area.  Check it out- Dan & his stand are awesome!) and the squash bins were overflowing.  There is nothing I love more than squash soup.  Making a giant pot would be just the thing to keep my mind off Adam's imminent departure.  Did I mention my brother is a professional chef?  Well he is, the real deal, with the tall white toque, an impressive resume and everything.  He's created some of the most memorable dishes I have ever eaten, and he's taught me almost everything I know about navigating my way around a recipe and a kitchen.  Making a delicious soup seems like the perfect tribute to him.  So without further ado, onto my recipe...

Roasted Squash Soup

1 medium size Butternut Squash, peeled, seeded & cut into 1" cubes
1 medium size Acorn Squash, peeled, seeded & cut into 1" cubes
1 medium size Buttercup Squash, peeled, seeded & cut into 1" cubes
1 large Yam (or Sweet Potato), peeled & cut into 1" cubes
4 Tbsp dried Thyme
Chili powder
Olive Oil
1/4 c butter
2 apples, peeled, cored, coarsely chopped*
1 medium onion, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
2 garlic cloves, chopped
Bunch of fresh sage leaves, chopped fine
Salt & Pepper
8 to 10 cups chicken broth
Blue Cheese crumbles (optional)

* I used 1 Golden Delicious & 1 Fuji apple

1. Roast the Squash.  Preheat the oven to 350 F.  In a large bowl toss the squash cubes with some olive oil, the thyme, salt, pepper & a little chili powder.  Spread the seasoned squash in a single layer on 2 rimmed baking sheets lined with parchment paper (cause it makes clean-up way easy).  Roast squash for at least an hour, stirring the squash halfway through cooking.  When squash is done transfer back to a large mixing bowl.
2. Sauté the Onions, Celery & Apples.  In a large skillet or soup pot melt 1/2 stick of butter over medium heat.  Add the celery, onions & garlic and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onions & celery start to soften.  Stir in the apples & sage and season with salt & pepper.  Continue cooking over medium to medium low heat for another 10 to 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the apples are nicely softened.  
3. Mix Everything Together & Blend.  Transfer the onion, celery, apple, sage mixture to the same large bowl with the roasted squash and stir all the ingredients together.  Working in batches, puree the mixture in a blender, adding chicken stock to the blender for each batch (enough to cover however much of the squash mixture you put in your blender).  Pour pureed soup batches into a large soup pot.
4. Heat up & Thin out.  Once all the soup has been pureed and added to the soup pot, heat up the soup over medium heat, stirring occasionally.  Add more chicken broth until the soup reaches the consistency you like. 
5. Serve!  Serve soup hot with a little bit of blue cheese crumbled on top.

This recipe makes a TON of soup, I usually freeze half of it for later use, and then try and pawn some off to friends.  Feel free to cut the recipe in half if you don't have an army to feed or a large freezer to store the leftovers.

So that's it for my first blog post & first shared recipe.  I swear most of the things I make aren't this time consuming, or require so many steps, or so many pots, pans, appliances & bowls.  But just like my relationship with my brother, this soup takes time and little work, but is well worth it in the end.  I hope you enjoy.  If you try out my recipe and it works, let me know.  If it doesn't work- let me know that too.

Bon Appetit!
Laura