Good Soup and Good Living

“Good soup is one of the prime ingredients of good living. For soup can do more to lift the spirits and stimulate the appetite than any other one dish.”
Louis P. De Gouy, The Soup Book (1949)

When the budget is tight, or a meal needs stretching, or there are too many leftovers to throw away but not enough to make a good meal of any one, or it's just a cold and damp day, soup is a good thing. Accompany it with some rolls, home-made bread, or the Hillbilly housewife's garlic bread, and you have a meal no housewife need blush over.

Here's a split pea potato soup recipe we've enjoyed:

1 1/2 cup finely chopped onion
3 cup split peas
6 diced potatoes
15 cups water
1 1/2 cup parmesan cheese
1-2 t. salt

In a large stock pot brown the onions in a small amount of oil. Add everything else but the parmesan cheese to the stock pot (rinse your split peas first). Bring to a boil, reduce heat, simmer 45 minutes. Puree the soup in a blender or use an immersion blender (I inherited mine and I love it). Add parmesan cheese and serve.
This serves 10-12- add the bread and perhaps some fruit or carrots sticks and you can stretch it a bit more. You can also add grated carrots to the soup (grated they will cook faster) and thin it with water if you need to. Naturally, it will taste even better if you add some ham to it, or at least a ham bone for flavor.


I have some other soup recipes here.