White Bean, Tomato and Pasta Soup with Herbed Focaccia

It's been rainy and cold here, so I have been craving soup. Sometimes I use a recipe, but what I love about soup is how easy it is to improvise. For this soup I started out by sauteing some onion, celery, carrot, parsley, and garlic in olive oil. When the vegetables were soft I added a little red wine. Then I added vegetable stock, a large can of crushed tomatoes, and dried thyme and rosemary. We were trying to clean out the fridge, so a little spicy salsa went in as well; not in my original plans, but it worked nicely. I added some great northern beans that I had cooked earlier in the pressure cooker and let it all simmer for twenty minutes or so. Then I threw a few handfuls of rice pasta twists into the pot, and continued to simmer until the pasta was tender. I also added some fresh basil a minute before I took the soup off of the heat. A little sea salt and it was ready.


I also made herbed focaccia, and I was excited to find another use for my lavender here. I just added some in with the other dried herbs. I used thyme, rosemary, and the lavender. It tasted great, and really went well with the strong tomato flavor of the soup.



And finally, here's a picture of Nutmeg taste testing the fresh herbs. She was getting a bit cranky after several posts without any pictures of her. She kept looking at me like...hello! RABBIT food?!

Split Pea Soup

It has been cold lately...well, as cold as it gets in Louisiana. I'm from the Midwest where I'd be shoveling snow about now, but I get wimpier each winter I spend in the South. Anyway, it's cold, so it's time for soup. Split pea soup is perfect for cold weather. It's also easy to make, especially if you do it in the pressure cooker like I do. If you're scared to use a pressure cooker, you should look into the new models. They are much safer than the old ones, where you hear stories about housewives being permanently scarred from exploding split peas.


I dice an onion and saute it with a little olive oil in the pot. I'm sure the onion would cook just fine if I skipped this step, but it gives me some time to sort and rinse the split peas. Normally I would add some diced carrot and celery, but I was hungry, and thus in a hurry. Some garlic, thyme and rosemary go in next, and then one package of sorted and rinsed split peas along with 6 cups of water. On with the pressure cooker lid, and 15 minutes later it's ready. Then I taste it and add salt, Braggs, Tabasco (i like the smoked chipotle kind), or whatever sounds tasty. You could also add some diced tomato or roasted red pepper, or...anything really. Sometimes I add a little water to thin it, but it's usually about right. Nothing else tastes like split pea soup, and nothing else is quite as warming to me on a cold evening.

I ate it with toast and pepper jelly. If you like sweet, and you like hot, and you haven't tried pepper jelly...you must. I was skeptical until I tasted it, and now I can't imagine going without it.