Ingredients
- 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 3 cups chopped onion
- 1 tsp salt and 1 tsp freshly ground pepper
- 3 cups (24 ounces) dried split peas (green or yellow)
- 12 large cloves garlic
- 1/2 cup finely chopped cilantro (or 1 Tbsp ground coriander)
- 1 Tbsp ground cumin
- 1 Tbsp & 1 tsp paprika
- 1/4 cup sour cream
- Cayenne
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Moroccan Split Pea Soup
Time: 10 minutes prep, 70 minutes cook
Servings: 8-12
Directions
- Combine 4 Tbsp of olive oil, the chopped onion, salt and pepper in a deep soup pot over medium heat. Cover and cook for 5 minutes until the onions are softened and golden. Add the split peas, garlic, cilantro, cumin, and 1 Tbsp of paprika and stir for 1 minute. Add 12 cups of water and bring to a boil. Cover and cook for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.
- Remove from heat and puree the soup in a blender in 2 batches, adding the sour cream to the last batch. Return to the sauce pan, add salt and pepper to taste, and thin with hot water as desired.
- Reheat the soup to boiling and divide into bowls. In a small bowl, mix 2 Tbsp of olive oil with 1 tsp of paprika and about 1/4 tsp of cayenne (or more to taste). Drizzle the desired amount of the pepper oil over each bowl of soup and serve.
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Summary
This is a delicious and beautiful recipe I adapted from one in Paula Wolfert's beautiful book "the food of morocco". The split pea soup has wonderful Moroccan flavors, and it gets a beautiful touch when you drizzle homemade pepper oil on top. This is a super easy trick which adds a nice kick to the already flavorful soup. It's great with kids because they can add as little (or none) of the pepper oil. This is close enough to traditional split pea to be considered comfort food, but it's also deliciously different.
Reviews
October 22, 2012
This was a nice variation on traditional split pea soup. We drained every drop of it, which is a testament to how good it was! And two out of four kids added the pepper oil and enjoyed it.I've cooked/tasted this recipe!
Comments
October 26, 2012I love Morrocan recipe but must admit that I keep them milder than the recipes call for. Your soup looks very pretty.
October 22, 2012I have Paula's book but haven't tried this yet. It sounds wonderful and the pepper oil is a unnique way of adding that extra zip without overpowering the flavor of the dish. I'll have to try that.
