Split pea soup with black radish

The main thing with pea soup is to find a different combination of ingredients. It's not the dullest soup on the planet. It has a delicate flavor. It blends well with a variety of other vegetables. But its delicacy and its blendability may be the reason why potages made with split peas can be bland as an old joke (or hackneyed clown routine).

Juliette is of the school that throwing in large doses of condiments just to give pea soup flavor  is not the way to go, and I concur. The flavors must come from the body itself, from the melange. The other side of this is the well-known fact, now that we're beginning to learn to cook, that what makes for good cooking is being ready, keeping a good back stock of compatible makings.

So it was that on one particular morning just before the holidays, we knew it was time for a good split pea soup using produce from a recent basket. The main ingredient, we decided, would be diced potatoes (three varieties), which is to be expected, along with an chopped onion, a couple of diced black radishes (radis noir), and some diced carrots to add a touch of sweetness and color. Split peas and water, but also a good helping of almond milk, which gives the broth a richness that you can't get with crême fraîche.

more to come