Yellow Split Pea and Sweet Potato Soup with Bacon

I've mentioned before my love of soup. I especially love soup on blustery fall days. I have a new 5-quart soup and chili pot which is just perfect for making a good-sized amount of soup to carry me through a good portion of the week. I'm trying to be good about freezing meals for my brown-bag lunches and quick, no-time-to-cook dinners. Soup works for me.

Although I like all varieties of soup, from the brothy kind to thick chowders, I have a special fondness for bean and legume soups. I could happily eat lentil soup every week, and same goes for Split Pea with Some Sort of Pork soups.

This is a good one.

Yellow Split Pea and Sweet Potato Soup with Bacon

Ingredients:

• 4 slices thick-cut slab bacon ( I used peppered bacon), cut into 1-1/2 inch pieces
• 2 cloves, garlic
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 1/2 cup carrots and/or parsnip, diced
• 1/2 cup celery root, diced
• 1 cup sweet potato, diced
• 1-1/2 cup yellow split peas
• 1-1/2 t cumin
• 1/2 t salt
• 1/2 t smoked paprika
• 6 - 8 cups chicken stock or vegetable stock (In this case, I used Better Than Bouillon's No-Chicken Base)

Directions:

1. Cook down the bacon until nicely crisp. Remove the bacon pieces and drain on a plate lined with paper towels
2. Saute the onion, parsnips, carrots and celery root in the bacon fat until softened, then add the diced sweet potato and cook for another 5 minutes.
3. Add the cumin and split peas and stir to coat. 
4. Add the broth, reserved bacon pieces and salt, bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 1-1/2 - 2 hours. Add smoked paprika and taste to adjust seasoning and serve of follow the next step for a pureed soup.
5. (Optional) When the split peas are soft enough to your liking, fish out all of the bacon pieces, puree the soup with a stick blender or in small batches in a blender, then toss the bacon back in and let simmer for 5 more minutes and then serve.

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