Wow. Fall came roaring in this week bringing along my favorite time of the year. Soup Season is officially open! In my house that means that pretty much every Sunday from now until spring you will find a pot of some sort of soup (and I have recipes for hundreds of them) simmering away on the stove for dinner.


Soup is such a wonderful thing. A one pot wonder of yummy goodness and recipes range from the very complex to the very simple. Tonight we are having homemade split pea soup. You may take a look at a bag of dried split peas and think you could never do that and it takes forever, but it's really one of the fastest, easiest and cheapest soups in my repertoire. You can even make this no-brainer on a weeknight it's that quick and the items I use for my variation I keep on hand in the pantry.


There are other Sundays of course, that I feel a little more ambitious and will make chicken noodle soup from scratch or a many vegetable beef soup. Those are the days that make the house smell fantastic...all day. We're literally drooling by dinnertime.


Canned soups are great to have onhand for a weeknight. Opening a can of tomato soup and grilling cheese sandwiches happens in our house once every couple of weeks, for sure. By the way, did you know that a can of Campbell's chicken noodle soup has 32 feet of egg noodles in every can? I freaked out when I heard that on a commercial. But I digress...


It's so easy to create your own soup too. Lots easier than you may think. There are so many good packaged stock products available to create a base with. Then add whatever vegetables, pasta, rice, meats, fish or shellfish (remember to throw those shellfish in towards the end though, they don't take long to cook). One of the favorite bases I use for a create my own is a combination of tomato juice, beef stock and water.


So that's a little insight into what is one of my favorite times of the year and what makes it so special to me. Please don't be a Soup Nazi this winter. I'm sharing my easy split pea soup recipe below.


Thanks for reading!

Ellen

XOXO


Split Pea With Bacon Soup


1 lb dried split peas
1/2 cup finely diced carrots
3 oz package of real bacon bits
8 cups water
1 bay leaf
1 tsp salt


Heat about a tablespoon of vegetable oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Saute the carrots until tender crisp (about 10 minutes). Add split peas, water, bay leaf and salt and heat to boiling. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for about 30 minutes. Add real bacon bits and cover and simmer for an additional 15 minutes. Remove bay leaf before serving.