Golden Split Pea Soup

This is 1 of 2 recipes I tried today from Clean Food by Terry Walter. I was so excited to make this that I got up early on my day off. It proved a worthwhile sacrifice! I think I like the golden split pea flavor better than the traditional green. It tastes, well, not as green. I changed a couple of minor things and what follows is her recipe with a couple of my modifications.

2 T. EVO
1 lg. yellow onion, diced
4 garlic cloves, minced
4 stalks celery, diced
4 carrots, diced
1 c. chopped tomato
1 sweet potato, peeled and diced
1/4 c. mirin
2 T. red wine vinegar
1/2 t. powdered mustard
4 c. golden split peas
10 c. water
1 t. sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
1 bay leaf

* t = teaspoon T = tablespoon

* Mirin is a Japanese sweet cooking wine. It can be found at Whole Foods. If it is not in your grocers Asian aisle I would try your local Asian store.

In large soup pot over medium heat, saute onion and garlic in olive oil until soft. Add celery and carrots and saute another 3 minutes. Add tomato, potato, mirin, vinegar and mustard and stir to combine. Rinse and drain split peas and add to pot along with remaining ingredients. Bring soup to boil, cover, reduce heat and simmer at least 4 hours, adding water as needed to thin. Remove bay leaf and serve.

Note: I used a handheld submersion blender to partially puree soup before serving. The picture above is before pureeing.