Culinary foolery

[pameladean]

At around six this evening I began to make what I thought would be a simple soup: split yellow pea soup with sweet potatoes, kale, and curry spices. At seven I checked it. The flavor was nice, though devoid of salt because salt can cause dried legumes to take longer to cook. The peas were crunchy.

It is now eleven-thirty. I have tasted it about every twenty minutes. The sweet potatoes are mostly disintegrated, and the kale, which I put in in large pieces because I am lazy, has broken down into green flecks as if it were really a lot of dried green herb. It tastes really nice; all the curry spices have melded and mellowed.

The peas are firm.

If I could be bothered to put together a poll, I'd have let people vote on when the peas would be done. I am hoping they are done by 12:30, since I have to eat something then with my medication, and I have not really had any dinner.

I think I must have bought those yellow split peas a lot longer ago than I recall. They came from the bulk department of Whole Foods, so there is no sell-by date.

It is not that easy to write when one is leaping up every twenty minutes to see if the peas are done, but I have managed a certain amount anyway.

Maybe I should have put the salt in.

P.

Comments

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

"Is it soup yet?"

Probably not, given the time stamp on your LJ post.

Do you have a pressure cooker? Would that encourage them along?

I wish I were there to taste. Then again, I like firm peas. Granted, they're not what I think of when contemplating split pea soup, but still....

(Miss you!)

[eudaimonia.livejournal.com]

I have found that the best way to cook dried beans, peas etc. is to let them soak overnight (or all afternoon) in cold salted water, the next day rinse them and cook them normally. I hope your soup turned out okay eventually. :-)

[dsgood.livejournal.com]

I remember a post on misc.survivalism, from someone who had cooked dried beans stored away ten years earlier. Even with soaking, they took a looong time to cook. But they did eventually become edible. (Survival supplies are supposed to be rotated, to keep them from being that old when needed.)

[mplsvala.livejournal.com]

Another quick and dirty trick for dried beans is to hard boil them separately for an hour or so. (Lots of water, lots of heat, lots of stirring)

[von-krag.livejournal.com]

That's my trick too. If I need them quick I also will pressure cook them after that boil.

[pariyal.livejournal.com]

AFAIK cooking dried peas with salt makes it take even longer! That's why I always add the salt last, even with red lentils which take only 15 minutes anyway.

[calimac.livejournal.com]

Instructions for legumes vary dramatically. In case of doubt, I soak 'em first. And never cook them with salt.

[jinian.livejournal.com]

Well, it sounds like it will taste very nice whenever it's done, at least!

[darcydodo]

Is it possible that the curry spices had salt in them? Because if you hadn't explicitly mentioned leaving out the salt, I would've have laughed and said, "Gosh, it sounds like she put salt in the soup before the peas were cooked, tsk tsk!"

I've occasionally seen it written that split peas are supposed to be soaked, but most places I've seen that they don't need to be, and I've never had the experience that they do. Maybe there are different kinds of split peas? I dunno.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

There are lots of different kinds.

I'd soak the yellow ones, myself.

I was about to say that I never make pea soup because nobody else would eat it, and then I remembered that I make soup all the time that nobody eats but me, so actually I could.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

Yes, soaking would probably have been a good idea.

B

[netmouse.livejournal.com]

I had exactly that experience with dried peas the last time I tried split pea soup, and haven't tried since! I didn't know about the salt thing, though, but I seem to recall I soaked them for a long time. Maybe I should try it again...

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

I didn't know that about old beans and peas! I will go start some of mine immediately so we can eat them next week.

[coffeeem.livejournal.com]

Coulda been old yellow split peas... Or the bulk foods distributor might have gotten a few bags of chana dal and not noticed the difference. Chana dal looks exactly like yellow split peas, but cooks very slowly and maintains its structural integrity even when done. Yummy, and very good for diabetics. But I guess that doesn't really help your sweet potatoes and kale, does it?

[willshetterly.livejournal.com]

Chana Dal seems to be very inconsistent in its cooking time. I remember the nightmare batch that took all day, but sometimes chana dal doesn't take much longer than yellow peas would. Go figure.

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

I'm with the "always soak" contingent. I've never had it do any harm.

[ritaxis.livejournal.com]

The method I have for the gassy kinds of legumes might help with split peas, though usually they cook faster than that. I bring them to a boil for a few minutes, turn them off, let them soak an hour or so, change the water, and then cook them from there.

Another thing with legumes is I cook them by themselves till they are nearly done. I sometimes cook the other ingredients at the same time, ubut in a different pot.

[torrilin.livejournal.com]

I've had split peas take anywhere from around 30min to most of a day of cooking. They behave about like lentils, just a hair longer on the cooking. Neither one should need a soak or be firm after 12+ hours of cooking.

I'm very much a soak as little as possible sort tho. Fresh beans either don't need a soak or need very little. So I aim to keep the household beans Very Fresh.

[lcohen]

i don't know a thing about cooking split peas but anything with curry spices gets my attention, of course!