Bright Soup for a Grey Day

It is raining again. These grey days are relentless and I am noticing that I am feeling sluggish rather than skipping merrily along as I usually do in springtime. I am hoping that the sun will arrive soon, but in the meantime, I decided I would make some bright yellow pea soup. The recipe is from Vegetable Soups from Deborah Madison's Kitchen and it is divine. It tastes exotic and rich and entirely soothing all at once. It's almost like sunshine in a bowl. It is one of my favourite winter soups, but I think it will be just as fitting on a rainy spring day.

It calls for spinach thrown in at the end, but I am wary after a bad experience when I added spinach to a bean soup and the whole thing was really weird and slimy.

Yellow Pea and Coconut Milk Soup:

Soak 2 cups yellow split peas for at least an hour, then bring them to a boil in a pot with 8 cups of water, a couple of bay leaves, 3 cloves (I didn't have whole cloves so I just added a little powdered clove) and 1 1/2 tsp salt. Simmer and let the peas cook partially covered.

Melt 2 tbsp butter in a pan and add 1 finely chopped onion and 1/4 cup minced cilantro stems. Cook for around 10 minutes, then add 1 1/2 tsp tumeric, 1 tsp cardomon (if you have it, I didn't), 1/2 tsp cinnamon and a pinch of red pepper flakes. Add 1/2 cup of water from the simmering peas and cook until the water is gone.

Add the onion mixture to the peas and continue to cook for about one hour until everything is nice and soft.

Remove the bay leaves and puree, then stir in a can of coconut milk and the juice of a lime.

This is where I end it, but she also suggests adding cooked rice to each bowl, along with the dreaded cooked spinach ( Danger! Potential slime alert!) and then topped with yogurt spiced with a bit of tumeric, paprika, cumin and pepper.

It may seem as though it's time intensive, but it actually isn't that fussy and is well worth it.