As I mentioned last week, I have been having to “tweak” some of my usual recipes to use as part of my Daniel Fast, where I cannot eat meat (though because I am nursing and need extra calories, I have been eating some seafood), dairy, added sweeteners, leavened bread, or processed foods. To make things a little easier, I have been making a big batch of soup at the beginning of each week and eating a bowl of that soup, along with a salad, for lunch every day. This week I used my mother’s recipe for split pea soup, and tweaked it to make a vegetarian version. It was still really good, and I even served it to my mom when she came by for lunch one day and she and the boys enjoyed it with some oyster crackers as you can see from the picture! (I can’t have the crackers as part of the fast, but it was still good without them )

Creamy Split Pea Soup

Ingredients
4 cups vegetable broth (for a Daniel Fast, use this recipe, or just use water)
6 cups water
1 lb. package split peas
1 1/4 cup chopped carrots
1 sliced onion
1 cup sliced celery
4 whole allspice (or 1/4 tsp. ground)
4 whole peppercorns
1 bay leaf

Combine water and broth in large pot and bring to a boil. Put spices in a tea ball or coffee filter tied with string and add to pot. Add remaining vegetables, reduce heat and simmer 45-60 minutes or until all vegetables are soft. Blend thoroughly and enjoy!

Servings: Approximately 8-10 (1 cup servings)

For a non-vegetarian version, add a ham bone to the water/broth (can use chicken broth in place of vegetable broth) before boiling, then skim the fat from the surface before adding the other ingredients.