Nothing beats a bowl of steaming split pea soup, especially if it's made in the slow cooker. The benefits to using a slow cooker as opposed to a soup pot is that you don't have to sit at the stove and watch the pot. The meal is cooked on low heat for several hours - no to worry about the food burning. Also, the flavors have a chance to get to know each other and meld together. Serve this vegetarian split pea soup with a grilled cheese or garlic toast.
Ingredients:
2 pounds dried split peas
6 inches strip of kombu
1 medium onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 celery rib, sliced
1 medium carrot, sliced
1 medium potato, diced
3 bay leaves
dash of cayenne pepper
dash of black pepper
dash of paprika
1 tablespoon vegetable base
1 tablespoon barley miso
Directions:
Sort, rinse, and drain the dried peas.
Place kombu in bottom of 5-quart slow-cooker. Add peas and all other ingredients except for vegetable base and miso. Add water until ingredients are just covered
With slow-cooker on high setting, begin to cook the soup mixture. Cook for 3-5 hours; cooking time will vary with different slow-cookers
After soup has cooked for 1 hour, combine vegetable base with a small amount of soup in small cup. Add this base mixture back to soup in slow cooker. Stir thoroghly and continue to cook until ingredients are smooth and creamy.
When soup is finished cooking, turn cooker to warm setting and add miso in the same way you added the vegetable base. Stir with a wire whisk to combine, and serve.
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