Split Pea Soup and Pyrador Pinot

Since the fam left after Thanksgiving, we were left with a lot of vegetables. I think we thought we would use far more carrots, onions, and celery than we actually did. Well anyway, since Chris was working late late late this week, and I was alone to fend for myself in the kitchen while still using some of the refrigerator contents, I decided to make some split pea soup! I had never made split pea soup before, and I didn't have ham (or anything pig-related), but I had everything else. But, thanks to allrecipes.com, and my Droid on the train ride home, I came across a ham-less split pea recipe:

Split Pea Soup without Pork


Ingredients

* 1 pound dried split peas
* 1 stalk celery, diced
* 2 large carrots, peeled and diced
* 2 (14.5 ounce) cans low-fat, low sodium chicken broth
* 3 cups water
* salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Rinse and pick through peas. Place them in a large pot with the celery, carrots, broth and water. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover and simmer until peas have fallen apart, 1 to 2 hours. Season with salt and pepper before serving.



I decided to also add a small onion, since I have a ton of them, and despite the reviews saying this was too watery, I actually found mine was too mushy, so I added more water. Also I only needed to cook mine about 1.5 hrs. I chose to saute the veggies with a little of the stock before putting all the split peas and remaining stock/water, with some pepper and a bit of smoked paprika for a little smokiness. In the end, you couldn't really taste the smoked paprika, so maybe next time I will choose something else for a boost in flavor. Regardless, the result was very tasty, very hearty for this cold weather, and reheated well for future lunches and dinners. I highly recommend this simple tasty meal!

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Next on the agenda, the Pyrador Pinot Noir (2007). This wine is from the central coast of California, and is a decent wine for the $18 we paid for it at Binny's. It's a little thin, but has a fruit-forward flavor that we both really like. I'm not wild about it, but I enjoyed it for 4:00 on a Saturday afternoon.