Gather the family around – it’s soup night! Down with small portions of flavorless, diet broth. Let’s eat hearty, delicious, comfort food and get our bellies filled! Cheapskate Soup is found on page 88 of the Trim Healthy Mama Cookbook. Pearl chats: “Budgeting Mamas, this one’s for you! Split peas are ridiculously inexpensive. You’re going to feed a hungry crowd for less than five bucks and hopefully have leftovers for the next day.”
Cheapskate Soup (E)
Description
Gather the family around - it's soup night! Down with small portions of flavorless, diet broth. Let's eat hearty, delicious, comfort food and get our bellies filled! Cheapskate Soup is found on page 88 of the Trim Healthy Mama Cookbook. Pearl chats: "Budgeting Mamas, this one’s for you! Split peas are ridiculously inexpensive. You’re going to feed a hungry crowd for less than five bucks and hopefully have leftovers for the next day."
6 Servings
Ingredients
Instructions
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In a large soup pot sauté the onion in the butter until translucent, about 3 minutes. Add the water and peas to the pot with all the seasonings. Cover the pot, turn the heat to high, and bring to a quick boil. Then turn the heat to low and simmer for a few hours (or cook a bit faster on medium heat for 1 hour or so).
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Thirty minutes or so before serving, ladle some of the soup into a blender and puree (or use a stick blender in the pot). Add the puree back to the pot and stir. This helps create a creamier texture, but you want to keep some of the split peas in their whole state, too.
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Add the bacon crumbles (if using). Taste and adjust the seasonings to “own it.”
Note
You’ll want to soak your dried peas to avoid gassy problems (after all this is Trim Healthy Mama not Trim Tooting Mama). Start that process early in the morning. Put dried peas in a bowl, cover with warm water, and add 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar. Drain and rinse peas after soaking for approximately 7 hours. Once soaked, the peas will take less than hour to become fully cooked and creamy, but I like to start cooking this soup by mid-afternoon and simmer it long and slow. You can choose to gently cook it in the crock pot all day after soaking overnight.
As written, this soup does contain some protein, but not as much as most of your other Trim Healthy Mama meals. It is okay to have lower-protein meals now and then since the Trim Healthy Mama plan offers you ample protein at almost every meal. However, if you want to up the protein content, add some diced, cooked chicken breast to the soup. This will be your most budget friendly E option - if you're able, you can instead add some Just Gelatin (collagen) into your soup.
Serving Ideas: You can enjoy this soup with a piece or two of Swiss Bread (page 196) with just a small smear of butter, or there is still fuel room for a piece of E sprouted or sour dough toast. Or nix the bread and enjoy with a side salad with lean dressing. Children will want to top theirs with lots of grated cheese for a Crossover effect.
