Vegan MoFo Day 24: Hourslong Soup

VM & OD went to a dinner recently and came back raving about a soup that they'd enjoyed.  They were armed with a recipe, but it was shoddy at best.  Vague ingredient listing, insufficient instruction, and missing steps: even the sentence structure was wrong!  But I figured it was a good weekend project for VM & I while I was still in the throes of healthy cooking mode, so I decoded it and we came up with this.

Fennel and Yellow Split Pea Soup
serves 10

4 1/2 cups dried yellow split peas, rinsed
4 tbsp butter
2 bulbs fennel, diced
2 onion, diced
8 stalks celery, diced
12 small carrots, diced
4 cloves garlic
salt and pepper
1 tsp turmeric
14 cups vegetable stock
2 cups water
4 medium potatoes, peeled and diced

Directions:
Place peas in a ginormous pot where they take up from 1/4 to under 1/2 of the room, then fill up to the 3/4 line with water and a sprinkle of salt.  Bring to a boil, lower the heat slightly to prevent boiling over, and let cook for 30 minutes.  Stir occasionally, being aware that the peas will significantly expand.  When finished, drain, rinse, and set aside.

In any even more gigantoid pot, melt butter over medium-low heat.  Cook fennel, onion, celery, and carrots with garlic and salt and pepper, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes.

Add the turmeric, stock, water, potatoes, and peas; mix well.  Bring to a boil and then simmer, covered, for 2 hours.

Once cooled (this will take hours), use a food processor to puree in batches until smooth. 

Before:

After:

I realize we made a most significant batch, but we're both of the mind that if we're going to go through all the trouble, we may as well wind up with enough to freeze for a couple of meals.  If you choose to cook this quantity, know that the prep time is 2 hours, with more than two hands pitching in.  Granted we're far from culinary professionals, but eegads that's a long time.  I want to stress that the result was DIVINE, but there's no denying Amy's,- gotta love 'em. 

To accompany, a salad of romaine, tomato, red onion, and avocado with sun-dried tomato-walnut dressing (AFR p. 50), subbing lime juice for vinegar.

No lunch today, but for breakfast I had sliced banana with the LAST of my almond butter.  How fitting.

I know, I'm still having issues with the orientation of my pics.  Even though I correct it after uploading, it still appears out of whack.  Who cares?  Tomorrow is the last day of the cleanse!  Maybe I should fast completely in order to make room for the feast that awaits me?