Pease Porridge Hot...

These days, we are trying a lot of different things to tempt Dad's appetite. Pea Soup has long been a favorite in our house, and we always made it from scratch.

My version of pea soup is more like a hearty vegetable soup that happens to have dried split peas added to it.  (Sometimes, I'll sneak in an unusual vegetable choice and hope that nobody notices!)

Today's pea soup starts with sautéed chopped onions in olive oil.  When those are soft, I add the rest of the diced vegetables:  carrots, celery, mushrooms, cabbage.  I think the most essential vegetable in pea soup is the celery, so I make sure there's a lot of it and always include the celery tops!

This is also a great way to use up any veggies that are starting to look a little sad in your veggie drawer.  I like to call these types "vintage vegetables."  

Continue with the sauté until all the veggies are a bit soft. To speed things up, I boil up some water in the electric tea kettle, then add water and the bags of split peas to the pot. 

 This time, I also added diced purple sweet potato to the mix.  It will tone down the pea-soup-green color of the soup, so don't do this if you are picky about the color of your soup!  

Now we just simmer and stir, simmer and stir for a couple hours.  

Add salt and pepper to your liking.

Pops will probably get his finished soup blitzed with the immersion blender, but I like mine chunky!  I love the combo of pea soup and fresh cornbread...just saying!