Split pea soup (with bacon and miso)

Oh, how quickly the season and the weather changes!  It's October already and those long, blazing-hot, summer days seem like a distant memory.  The sweaters, the long pants, and comforters are starting to find their way out of the closets and once again, our food cravings are starting to shift.

It feels somewhat symbolic to make a pot of soup to welcome fall.  I make soup all year round and enjoy it whenever possible but at this time of year, when it turns chilly and starts getting dark early, I really want to warm up with a bowl of soup, and I feel motivated to try a new soup recipe I haven't made before.

This comparison won't make much sense but soups are a little like brownies to me.  I generally like them all!  Can you remember the last soup you had that you really didn't like?  I can't...so I know making soup will be rewarding. And this is the time of year when I feel the motivation to try something new.  I chose this split pea soup, a recipe I saw and adapted from the latest issue of Cooking Light magazine.  

The magazine had a feature on "pulses" - dried seeds of plants that we know of in the form of lentils, dry peas, chickpeas and beans.  Those are some of my favorite things - foods that fill me up that I feel really good about eating.  This soup made me think of the many containers of split pea soup I'd pick up at a local lunch spot back when I worked in NYC eons ago.  That soup was thick and hearty, plus quite salty.  That salty/savoriness was likely from the ham hock that you often find in the base of split pea soup.

Instead of ham, there's bacon in this green split pea soup.  Not too much...we're talking 5 slices of center-cut bacon, rendered until crispy, then crumbled and stirred into the soup when it's done.  The idea is to use the bacon grease to cook your aromatics in (which would give it a great salty/smokey flavor) but I opted to discard all but about a teaspoon of it and add olive oil instead.  The other ingredient giving this soup more savory/umami flavor is miso paste.  If you think the idea is intriguing, I'm with you! It made me curious and since I have white miso in my fridge, I welcomed the chance to have another use for it.

No surprise, the soup hit the spot!  The bacon and miso add deep savoriness (you don't distinctly taste the miso) and the soup is hearty, with not only split peas but full of carrots and onions.  It takes about an hour for the pound of split peas to soften in plenty of chicken stock but I think it was well worth the time to make this happen.  I managed to stow a container of it away in the freezer and I'm already looking forward to having it again soon.


Aside from not using all the rendered bacon grease to cook the aromatics and ingredients for the soup in, I omitted the cup of celery called for in the original recipe. While I can now say I like celery (especially in soup), it's not an ingredient I cook with often and I didn't want to buy it - and have leftovers - just for this dish.  I upped the amount of carrots and onions in the soup instead.

In the pot above, the onions, carrots, garlic, and pound of green split peas are being cooked and tossed in with 2 tablespoons of white (mild-flavored) miso.  After this point, add 6 cups of low-sodium (or unsalted, if you can find it) chicken stock along with a bay leaf and let the soup come to a boil, then simmer for about an hour until the split peas are tender. 

I love pre-making a big pot of soup and then having a soup-and-sandwich night.  It's easy, hearty, and comforting - great for fall days and nights.

Recipe:

Split Pea Soup
Adapted from Cooking Light magazine, October 2016 issue

- Approximately 6 servings - 

5 center-cut bacon slices
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 rounded cup chopped onion
1 rounded cup chopped carrot
5 garlic cloves, chopped
2 tablespoons white miso (soybean paste)
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 lb. green split peas
6 cups low-sodium or unsalted chicken stock
1 bay leaf
Optional: splash of lemon juice

Place bacon slices into a Dutch oven over medium-high heat.  Cook for about 5 minutes, or until bacon is rendered and crisp.  Remove bacon to a paper-towel lined plate to drain; crumble into pieces and set aside.

Discard all but about a teaspoon of the bacon grease from the pan and add a scant tablespoon of olive oil (alternatively, you could continue to cook the ingredients in all the bacon drippings and omit the olive oil).  Over medium-heat, add onion, carrot, and garlic to the pan and cook for 4-5 minutes or until slightly tender.  Add miso, salt (amount depending on saltiness of your chicken stock), pepper, and the split peas.  Saute for about 2 minutes, stirring constantly.  Add stock and bay leaf.  Bring to a boil over medium-high heat.  Partially cover, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer for about 1 hour or until peas are tender.  

Discard the bay leaf.  Add a splash of lemon juice, if desired.  Taste the soup, adjusting seasoning, if necessary.  Finally, stir in the reserved bacon.