healthy dutch split pea soup
aka “Erwtensoep” recipe
My husband and I lived in Amsterdam for 3 years and now live in Chicago. Since moving back, I have been on a mission to find the perfect Dutch split pea soup — it had become one of our favourite Dutch dishes (besides stamp pot, naturally). I was happy when I stumbled upon this recipe on AllRecipes.com by Carmel. Since my husband and I have to be at a beachy wedding this October (and, we are nowhere near bathing-suit ready), we are trying to cut calories. So, I modified this recipe to make it even healthier.
makes: about 17 cups
ingredients
1 (14 oz) bag dried split peas (or, 1 3/4 cups)
1 chicken breast, whole
3 slices turkey bacon, chopped
2 (14.5 oz) cans chicken broth
3 1/2 cups water, plus more as needed
4 small potatoes, peeled & diced
2 carrots, peeled & diced
1 leek, chopped (see how to chop a leek)
1/2 large onion, diced
2 stalks celery with leaves, stalks diced & leaves chopped
1 clove garlic, diced
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
4 smoked turkey sausages, sliced
directions
step 1 Place dried split peas, chicken breast, and turkey bacon into a slow cooker; pour in chicken broth and 3 1/2 cups water — making sure that the chicken breast is covered with the liquid.
step 2 Cover slow cooker and cook on High until peas are tender and broken apart, about 3 to 4 hours. Stir in more water as needed to prevent soup from burning on the bottom. Stir occasionally throughout cooking.
step 3 Pull out chicken breast and shred the meat using 2 forks. Put the chicken meat back into the slow cooker and stir.
step 4 Stir potatoes, carrots, leek, onion, celery, and garlic into soup; mix in more water, if needed. Cover and cook soup on High for 2 more hours.
step 5 Season with salt, black pepper, thyme, nutmeg, and cloves; mix turkey sausage slices into soup. Cover and cook 2 more hours to blend the flavours.
chef’s note This soup ended up filling my slow cooker to the rim, so do not add any extra ingredients!
