Exotic Nile River Split Pea Soup

Sharon123's Note:

With the exotic flavor of cumin and ginger, you will be loving this taste of Africa! Prep time does not include soaking time.

• Total Time: 1 hrs 45 mins
• Prep Time: 15 mins
• Cook Time: 1 hrs 30 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 6

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 onion , finely chopped
• 3 garlic cloves , minced
• ½ cup zucchini , chopped
• ½ cup red pepper , chopped
• 1 cup split peas , rinsed and soaked for at least 2 hours (green or yellow)
• 2 teaspoons fresh ginger , minced
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 2 teaspoons ground coriander
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 5 cups water (I add bouillon powder to water) or 5 cups vegetable stock (I add bouillon powder to water)
• 2 slices lemons , you can leave rind on or remove, your choice (1/4 inch thick or so)
• 1 cup tomato sauce or 1 cup pureed fresh tomato
• ¼ teaspoon cayenne , to taste
• salt and pepper
• 4 tablespoons finely chopped fresh cilantro
• sour cream (to garnish)

Directions:

1. Heat 1 tbls. oil in heavy pot on medium high heat.
2. Saute zucchini and red pepper for about 5 minutes till slightly softened. Set aside.
3. Saute onion and garlic until softened in remaining 1 tbls. of oil.
4. Stir in split peas,zucchini and red pepper, ginger, cumin, coriander, and brown sugar and coat with onion/garlic mixture.
5. Add lemon slices, stock, tomatoes, cayenne, salt and pepper (you can add salt and pepper later, but I like to put it in now).
6. Bring to boil, reduce heat to low, cover pot and simmer for about 1 1/2 hours or until peas are tender.
7. If you like your soup thin, add more stock.
8. Take the pot off the burner, discard lemon slices (if rind was left on), and puree soup in blender or food processor.
9. Season if you have not already added the salt and pepper.
10. Sprinkle with coriander (cilantro leaves). Alternatively, you can add the cilantro before you put the soup in the food processor.
11. Serve with a dollop of sour cream.
12. This recipe may be doubled.
13. Enjoy!
14. For a variation, substitute lentils for split peas.

Reviews

[CountryLady]

This is a good tasty soup for a cold winter day. I recommend soaking the peas overnight as I soaked them for 4 hours & it still required over 2 hours of simmering for them to become tender. I didn't have cilantro so I substituted with parsley.

[Chriswaterguy]

IMPORTANT: To get the split peas soft, don't add salt until they're already pretty much as soft as you want them. That also applies to stock powder since that contains salt. An easy way is to start cooking legumes (remember to toss out the soaking water and cook in fresh water), then start on the other ingredients & cook in a separate pot. Add the split peas when soft. Then cook for a bit more to ensure the salt mixes through. Now the review: Great flavors. I used seasonal veg (sweet potato and Japanese pumpkin aka Japanese squash) which were sweet enough that I didn't feel the need for the sugar. I was more generous with the spices and much more generous with the oil (extra virgin olive oil is great stuff). I doubt that many Mediterranean or Middle Eastern cooks would measure out the oil, let alone a mere 2 tablespoons! I also used yoghurt instead of sour cream, because that's what I had - but it would have been even nicer with sour cream.

[VegJen]

Delicious! I also had a problem getting the split peas soft. Based on the other reviews, I soaked them for 15 hours and allowed over 2 hours for simmering, and still they had a slight crunch to them by the time we gave up and ate. Could the acids in the recipe be affecting the cooking time? I didn't think it's because I had "old" split peas, because I've cooked them into mush in the crockpot in only 5 hours. (I used 2 tsp lemon juice and pattypan squash instead of the lemon slices and zucchini.)