End of the garden season means playing with food. Immature, little squashes are delicious! Do not leave them to rot on the vine as the frost threatens. Immature tomatoes, too.

Try this soup to use up whatever was picked hurriedly as the temperatures dropped. Per usual, this was a wing-it spontaneous creation. I’ll try to remember all the herbs and spices.

Picante Yellow Split Pea and Veggie Soup

Ingredients

• 1/2 dry yellow split peas. Soak for 8 hours in a pint jar or water or equivalent old jelly jar. After 8 hours, rinse, refill the water, cover and put in the fridge for a day. This should yield well over 1 C of soaked peas.
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 1 sweet onion (medium or larger)
• 1 immature squash
• 1/4 lb. or so of fresh green beans or string beans (yellow, purple, rattlesnake)
• 1/2 C of greens (you choose: chard, kale, spinach, hon tsai tai)
• 1 carrot – optional
• 1/3 C rice (your favorite kind) I used a Thai long-grain mix.
• spices and herbs:
  • 1 1/2 t. Kickin’Chicken grill seasoning
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 1 heaping t. corriander
  • 1 heaping t. paprika
  • 1/2 t. chili powder (more to taste?)
  • 1/2-1 t. garam masala
  • 1T fresh frozen chopped basil or 1/2T dry basil
  • 1T lime juice or frozen limeade concentrate
  • 1 vegetarian bouillon cube
  • 1/4-1/2 t. himalayan salt
  • a good sprinkle of black pepper
• butter or your favorite oil for saute

Method

• Chop the onion, the baby squash, the garlic (crush first), and carrot.
• Put a couple of large pats of butter or equivalent of oil in a small soup pot (1 gal?), melt, then add all these chopped ingredients.
• Stir on medium heat to begin to soften the onions; but do not burn the garlic.
• When the onions are slightly soft, pour in the yellow split peas plus their water. Add three more pints of water. Stir.
• Add the rice. Stir.
• Add all the spices, bouillon, salt and pepper; but not the basil or lime. Cover the pot.
• Slowly bring to a low boil, then reduce heat to low simmer. Cook for one hour. Stir occasionally. Add water if needed, but it shouldn’t be needed.
• After an hour, put in the greens and green beans, frozen chopped basil or equivalent, and lime/limeade concentrate.
• Cook another 20 minutes.
• Taste for any adjustments. Let sit for 15 minutes or so before serving. A simple quesadilla accompanies well. However, nothing is needed since the soup has rice.

The picante quality comes forward as the second spoonful becomes the third. The first spoonful will taste very flavorful and round, but not hot. The picante-level is not more than 2. (The split peas will still have form, not be mush. I love the textures of this soup! And, for those with a swallowing/choking risk, the need to chew is valuable.)

Enjoy!