Split pea soup

A couple of times in the last two weeks, I've eaten lunch at California Pizza Kitchen with my friend MDB. It's our favorite place, even though it seems to be populated with teenagers. I like the multitude of salads and pizzas. I like the calorie counts. I occasionally like ordering new things. (My friend can probably tattoo "broccoli sun-dried tomato fusilli" on her forehead. And my spouse could tattoo "roasted pepper goat cheese pizza" on his.)

The last couple of times I was in a soup mood. I tried the split pea with barley soup.

Yum.

I never knew split pea soup could be so good. So, I googled it. (Love google.) And I found THIS.

And today, I made it. Well, I adjusted it as follows:

I added 1/4 tsp of basil. Because I put it in there, and realized that I had the basil and not the parsley. Oops.

I used 10 cups of water instead of 6 cups water and 4 cups chicken stock. And I added a vegetable bouillon cube.

I left out the salt at the beginning. And then realized the cube wasn't salty enough. Added a bit in the end.

I did follow the instructions for cooking the split peas and onions, then puree'ing, then adding the celery, carrot and cooked barley later.


Split Pea Soup from CPK.

2 cups split peas: 1.80 (I used organic from Whole Foods, where I happened to be at the time. But I know they can be found on sale for only $0.79 for 2 cups).
1/2 small onion, diced: 0.30
1 cube veg bouillon: 0.30
10 cups water
1 tsp sugar
2 tsp lemon juice: 0.15 (I used 1/2 lemon)
2 medium carrots, diced: 0.26
2 stalks celery, diced: 0.10
salt, white pepper, thyme, and basil: 0.20
1/2 cup barley (and 6 cups water to cook it in): 0.37

Total: $3.48, for at least 12 cups, maybe a little bit more. $0.44 per 1.5 cup serving.

I'm not sure it was possible, but it was even BETTER the next day.