Split Pea Soup with Shiitake Mushrooms

One of the best ways to save money on food is having category nights like sandwiches, pasta, pizza or soup.  Soup is my all time favorite because it makes a lot, is easy to use as leftovers and always makes a great lunch.  You can also freeze it if you make a lot, then you'll have soup for gifts to sick neighbors and friends or for those nights when you just don' feel like making anything.

One secret--I never use boxed, canned or dried stock or boullion, in fact, I rarely even make soup stock but instead I add all the ingredients for stock into the soup--parsley, celery, onions, carrots and mushrooms.

Although mushrooms also impart color, I opt for the deep flavor that mushrooms, especially shiitake mushrooms bring to the pot.  When I use mushrooms for other dishes, I save the stems, let them dry and then rehydrate them with boiling water for the soup stock.

Red potatoes often have more sweet tones than Yukon Gold, white or yellow potatoes, but use whatever potatoes you have for this soup.

Why Shiitake mushrooms?

Shiitake mushrooms have been used medicinally in China for over 6,000 years; they offer immune system support and are also beneficial for cardiovascular problems. Lentinian, a compound in the mushrooms has been used as an anti-cancer drug. Shiitake are also good sources of Vitamin D2 and iron. 

Can you eat too many shiitake?

Who knows, but the price is high (compared to button and crimini mushrooms) and they don't exactly go with everything on the menu, so eating a lot of mushrooms could get monotionous. 

Carrots bring and earthy sweet tone to the soup. Local varieties are the best bet if you want a more flavorful sweet carrot.

Croutons add a great texture contrast.  I got gluten-free foccia from NuFlours.  The bakery is on Capitol Hill and they also sell at the University District Farmers Market on Saturday mornings 

Split Pea Soup with Shiitake Mushrooms

(Serves 4)

1/2 cup dried shiitake mushrooms

1 cup boiling water

1 tablespoon canola oil

2 shallots, peeled and diced small

2 to 4 cloves garlic, pressed

2 stalks celery, sliced 

1 large carrot, diced

1 or 2 yellow or red potatoes, diced

1 heaping cup split peas

1 tablespoon chopped Mama Lil's Peppers, or use your favorite hot sauce to taste

4 to 5 cups water

1/2 to 1 tablespoon tamari

1/2 cup chopped kalamata olives

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Garlic powder or pressed garlic, to taste

1 4-inch sliced of gluten-free focaccia, sliced in half

1. Pour boiling water over shiitake mushrooms.  Let these sit for at least an hour before using the liquid and mushrooms.

2. Saute the shallots in the canola oil until they are lightly browned.  Add garlic, celery and carrot.  Stir and cook until vegetables soften.  Add the potatoes, split peas, chopped marinated peppers or Mama Lil's peppers and water.  Stir and bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for an hour or until potatoes and peas are soft.  

3. Add 1/2 to 1 tablespoon tamari, stir and sprinkle chopped olives on top. Blend the garlic and olive oil and drizzle over the gluten-free focaccia.  Toast until lightly browned.  Cut into croutons and place on top of the soup.

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Orange-Ginger Carrot Soup with Lemon Cashew Cream

After the rich holiday treats and meals, I'm ready for something healthy, but I need delicious too.  That's how I invented this citrus-ginger flavored carrot soup with lemon cashew cream.

Carrots are in season about 9 months a year in the Northwest and my favorite time for carrots is winter. Like Brussels sprouts, carrots get sweeter in cold weather.  The citrus tones from blood oranges and Meyer lemon in the cashew cream make this a dreamy treat.  I honestly never knew carrot soup could be so good.  

Get your carrots at the market if you want fresh carrots.

You see this sign when carrots are back at local markets in the spring.  New crop carrots are very sweet and tender.  Larger winter carrots are often sweet with more carrot flavor. 

In the end, we got local carrots.  My Cooking Assistant loves the size of these northwest winter carrots.

The lemon-cashew cream has possibilities beyond this soup.  It is simply amazing and would enhance desserts as well as hot whole grain cereal in the morning.  Though the recipe mentions organic blood oranges and lemons (because the recipes lists zest), I also prefer that all the other ingredients be organic as well, if possible.

Orange-Ginger Carrot Soup with Lemon Cashew Cream

(Serves 4)

1 medium onion, diced

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 cloves garlic, pressed

2 stalks celery, sliced

1 pound carrots, washed and sliced

1 1/2  tablespoons freshly grated ginger root

4 cups water or vegetable stock

2 organic blood oranges, outer skin grated and juiced

1/2 cup cooked brown rice

1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

Sea salt to taste

Lemon cashew cream (see recipe below)

1. Sauté onion in olive oil, in a heavy skillet, until onions soften.  Add pressed garlic and celery.  Stir and cook for a few minutes.  Remove from heat.

2. Combine cooked vegetables, carrots, ginger and water in a soup pot.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer until carrots become very tender.

3. Add orange juice, orange zest, brown rice and pepper flakes.  Blend in a blender, 2 cups at a time until smooth and creamy.  Add sea salt to taste.  Drizzle each serving with lemon cashew cream.

Lemon-Cashew Cream

(Makes about 1 1/2 cups)

3/4 cup raw cashews

3/4 cup apple cider

2 teaspoons organic Meyer lemon zest

1 tablespoon organic Meyer lemon juice

1. Soak cashews in apple cider for at least an hour. 

2. Blend cashews, apple cider, lemon juice and zest until smooth and creamy.

"Cream" of Celery Soup (Vegan)

I love fall--the rainy days, falling leaves, pumpkins, hearty greens and root vegetables. It's also soup season, and last week I read this blog post and immediately wanted Cream of Celery soup. That's the thing about a good food blog--you never run out of ideas. The cream is made with cashew cream and celery's root cousin--celeriac--also plays a staring role.

Celeriac is not exactly out of season yet, but apparently it's getting a little late for celeriac here in the Northwest. I found some at Rent's Due Ranch.  

Sometimes you have to search out celery this time of year, too.  If you can't find either celeriac or celery check natural food stores because organic is way better tasting than non-organic. And if you're still having trouble finding celeriac, just add another white potato.

Celeriac is knobby and sometimes hard to cut all the gnarly brown hairs that grow up inside the root. The creamy color also turns brown when exposed to light, so if you need to leave it for more than a few minutes, toss it with lemon juice after cutting it, so it doesn't change colors.

Every fall soup needs garlic and you should get it now, while it's still in season.  River Farm is using the remainder of their garlic for seed next year. I hope they saved enough for the wonderful garlic powder they sell in the winter.

I'd asked for 5 heads a few weeks ago and when Liz brought 5 pounds, I decided to get it all.  Store it in a dark place where air circulates, and check it every so often to use heads that begin to soften.

Potatoes help thicken the soup.  Often when you leave leftovers overnight, the soup gets so thick you need to add more water the next day.

I added an apple on impulse because I had so many apples.  The flavors blend together well and you can't tell an apple was added to the mix.  Peel it first so the colors don't detract from the celery.

Upstairs, downstairs--together these two vegetables make a delicious team.

The cashews pureed with apple cider and added to the soup in the end, give the soup a decadent feel.

"Cream" of Celery Soup

(Serves 4)

If you don't already love celery, you will after this soup. A little of everything goes into this savory stock-free seasonal soup.

1/2 cup cashews

1/2 cup apple cider

8 ounces shiitake mushrooms, stems removed if large and sliced

1 small red pepper, seeds and stem removed, small dice

1 cup sliced carrots

1 small onion or 2 shallots, small dice

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

2 heads of celeriac, carefully peeled and diced

3 to 4 cups chopped celery

1 white potato, peeled and diced

1 apple, peeled, cored and diced

3 to 4 cloves garlic (pressed)

1 tablespoon chopped Mama Lil's Peppers (or 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes)

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1 teaspoon lemon zest

1/2 teaspoon agave nectar

4 cups water

Lemon juice to taste

Chopped parsley for garnish

1. Soak the cashews in apple cider for at least 2 hours.  Puree until smooth and set aside.

2. Dry fry the mushrooms until they soften.   Add red pepper, carrots, onion and olive oil.  Stir, cover and reduce heat so vegetables sweat and soften.

3. Place celeriac, celery, potato, apple, garlic Mama Lil's, sea salt lemon zest, agave nectar and water in a soup pot.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer until vegetables soften.  

4. Puree celeriac-celery mixture a little at a time until creamy.  Add the mushrooms and vegetables.  Balance the flavors with salt and lemon juice.  Stir in the cashew cream. 

5. Serve garnished with parsley.

Lemon-Basil White Bean Soup

To make our food budget work, we eat soup a lot.  In fact, soup is so often on our menu, it was really easy to blog about for a year in the soup project.  But I have secret.  I'm a long time soup lover and it's one of my favorite breakfasts. So I'd been dreaming about a white bean soup for awhile, but I was against adding any canned tomatoes. It's a sign I'm tired of winter-early spring fare in the Northwest.  My other option for "something sour" is lemon.  Basil is a perfect pairing for  a spring white bean soup.

You can use small white, navy, or cannellini beans.  I love beans from Willie Green's Organic Farm. And I've gotten them many times, but if you're looking for budget items these days, you can also use white beans from the Grocery Outlet if you want because this soup is about a symphony, not a solo performer. 

I don't use prepared vegetable broth or stock--it's just a pricey way to sell water.  You can make decent soup without any stock at all if you include, carrots, celery and onion and make sure to balance 5 flavors--salty, sweet, spicy (hot), bitter, and sour.   For sweetness I like to add sweet potato and cook it just enough so it begins to fall apart in the soup.

You can still find sweet potatoes at the market or you can check for the best price in grocery stores.  I love the local variety, but sweet potatoes are one of the "clean 15," along with asparagus, eggplant and kiwi.  

The "clean 15" means they are okay to purchase as non organic, according to the Enviromental Working Group.  So if you see a non organic sweet potato price bargain and you're on a food budget, go for the deal. 

Another farm vendor I love at the market is Olsen Potato Farm.  Their well-tended varieties make eating potatoes fun.  My favorite is the Purple Majesty with purple flesh inside purple skins.  Any red potatoes will do in this soup, but you might want to consider organic since potatoes are always on the "dirty dozen," list and no one needs extra pesticides with their soup.

I get my shiitaki mushrooms at Sno-Valley Mushrooms.  But if you can't get Sno-Valley mushrooms, you can often find decent quality at natural food stores.  You can also use regular button mushrooms if you have a tighter budget than mine.  This soup is just as delicious with less expensive mushrooms.

Here's this week's recipe.  I hope you like it as much as I do.   My Cooking Assistant of course gave his lick of approval.

Lemon-Basil White Bean Soup

(Serves 4)

When you sautee the onions, don't let them brown much.  A brown color will transfer to your soup and this soup looks best with the orange glow of sweet potatoes.

1 to 2 tablespoons canola oil

1 onion, red or yellow, peeled and diced

1/4 cup chopped red or green pepper

4 or 5 shiitaki mushrooms, tough stems removed and sliced

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 carrot, diced

1 potato diced

1/2 sweet potato, diced

1 tablespoon chopped Mama Lil's, or 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

4 to 5 cups water

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1 cup dry white or navy beans, soaked overnight and drained

1/4 cup chopped kalamata olives

2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil

Juice of 1 Meyer lemon

1 bunch spinach, tough stems removed and chopped

Sea salt to taste

Heat a heavy soup pot over medium heat.  Add oil, onion and peppers.  Stir and cook until onions soften.  Add mushrooms and garlic and continue to stir and cook until garlic begins to brown.  

Add carrot, potato, sweet potato and Mama Lil's peppers.  Stir to coat vegetables, then add thyme, water, white beans, and thyme.  Cover and simmer on low for one hour or until beans are soft. 

Add olives and basil.  Cook for 10 minutes.  Then add lemon juice.  Place the spinach in the bottom of the soup bowl.  Ladle soup over the leaves and stir to wilt the spinach.  Add sea salt to taste.

Smoky Split Pea Soup

This soup is perfect for Meatless Monday, and I have to confess, I ate it for breakfast. For the Soup Project (where every week was a soup recipe) I paired celery root with split peas in this soup.  It was grand and so creamy with the celery root, but you can't find celery root right now.  And the split peas will make it thick enough.

But celery is always available and since it's on the list of Environmental Working Group's Dirty Dozen (most pesticide laden), it's best to look for the organic label.  It's actually one of the more expensive items in my budget this week, the entire head of celery cost over four dollars, but the flavor is better and with organic you don't need to worry about eating pesticide residues.

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This recipe is budget friendly, even if you get high end celery. You don't need to buy organic, but I find it creepy to eat conventional vegetables and fruits if it harbors more pesticides. 

The split peas came from the Grocery Outlet, however, and cost less than a dollar, and I still have half left. That means the main ingredient was less than 50 cents.  

And potatoes. . . well, you know you can find always find potato bargains.  And even at the farmers market, potatoes are a bargain.  (Plus the potatoes from the market taste better, and organic is hard to beat.)

We always have carrots on hand. Big bags of them, and the reason is My Cooking Assistant.  He doesn't demand much, but he's a vegetable snob. If he doesn't have a carrot a day, he might get cranky. It's often less expensive when you buy larger quantities of foods. And if you like carrots (and aren't allergic) they can go in just about everything. If you don't have carrots, sweet potatoes or squash will also do.

I found the savory smoky maple tempeh bacon at a local natural foods store.

Finish with lemon juice. You don't need to use the whole lemon, but adding lemon is like a sunny day without the sun.  But then maybe you only get that when you live in the Northwest.

Smokey Split Pea Soup

(Serves 4)

1 cup shiitaki mushrooms, though stems removed, sliced

1to 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 onon, medium dice

1 carrot, diced

2 stalks celery, diced

3 cloves garlic, pressed

4 strips tempeh bacon, cut into 1 inch pieces

1 or 2 red potatoes, diced

1 heaping cup split peas

4 cups water

1 dried chipotle chile pepper

1 bay leaf

1 to 2 teaspoons Meyer lemon zest

1 cup almond or coconut milk (optional)

1 or 2 teaspoons lemon juice, or to taste

Sea salt to taste

A drizzle of agave nectar (optional)

1 cup chopped parsley

1. Heat a soup pot over medium heat.  Add shiitaki mushrooms.  Stir and cook until they soften.

2. Add olive oil, onion and red pepper flakes.  Stir and cook until onions begin to brown.  Add carrot, celery and pressed garlic.  Stir and cook for a few minutes, then add tempeh bacon and cook until it browns. Stir and cook for 5 minutes. Stir in potatoes.

3. Add split peas, water, chipotle chile, bay leaf, and lemon zest.  Cover and simmer on low for 45 minutes to 1 hour. Add almond or coconut milk, if desired.  Season to taste with lemon and sea salt.  Add a drizzle of agave nectar if desired to balance the lemon tones.   

4. Sprinkle with parsley before serving.