Cold weather is good for pea soup. The fastest way to make it is using green peas which are bought in a glass or can. Those peas are already cooked the only thing you need to do is warm them up and for soup, you leave them on the fire long enough till they look mashed. To win time you can use a blender (mine is broke). It helps to reduce the cooking time, the waiting, and the gas. My stove and oven work on gas bottles (some call it Campingaz) and I don't like to drag around with these heavy things to buy a new one and attach them. No matter how many times we changed those bottles it's still a struggle. Too many lids to remove and the plastic around the lid isn't easy to peel off either. I wonder how elderly people do it or those with eyesight worse than mine or rheumatism.
Months ago I bought peas. Dry peas and mainly for those cases in need plus they were sold cheaper. Usually, pea soup is made of green peas. The ones I bought are called yellow but their color is closer to orange.
I used the pan I don't like because everything I make in it gets burned (the enamel at the bottom was already damaged as I bought it something I could not see because it was wrapped in plastic!).
Peas, water and stirring are what you need to do most if you start with this soup. Without stirring it will get burned and burned pea soup is not tasty. If it comes to peas (and beans) its normal white foam is seen once the water boils but I did not take it away, a low fire made it disappear as well. What more to add to make it taste after something? My cupboards aren't empty but the question is do I have those ingredients needed? No, I have not which means I needed to figure out something else. I was not in the mood for shopping (actually I never am and like my kid says "each day I hate to spend money more and more with those high prices") so I added: 4 vegetable broth cubes, a mix of vegetables (cauliflower, carrots, potato) and red pepper. I had sambal left. A bit dry but good enough to make a spicy soup on a cold day (you should try peanut soup if you can). It smelled great.
Once I had to pick up the children the sun shone for 30 minutes which means it was warm in the car and it didn't look like winter pea soup weather any longer.
"What will we eat?"
"Pea soup."
"Is there meat in it?"
"No."
I am still not sure if it's a good thing or not but like said I am not in the mood to go to the shop or spend money. Soup it is. A thick soup without the sausage the children like most.
"It reminds me of D's pea soup," I said while eating.
D. said pea soup should be green and he climbed mountains to lay his hands on green peas instead of using the yellow ones. Yellow peas wouldn't make the soup real! He invited us for dinner. Proud he served his home made green soup. Soup with sausage, a sausage that doesn't belong in this soup and... tasted terrible. It is good D. had two dogs. Dogs allowed to be inside. One dog (the youngest) was even allowed to sit on the bench next to him. He fed it from his plate. Good D. was busy... we made the ignored old dog happy with sausage.
My children share those pea soup memories and the taste of the sausage is still fresh in our memory. That sausage is still good enough to turn us into a vegetarian if we dine with others and the meat looks or smells suspicious or my youngest doesn't like the type of meat.
"Will they turn the people here into vegetarians too just like the politicians in the Netherlands try with us", I informed.
The children have strong doubts about it since here people love meat, their sausages, those sausages we find tasteless and smelly. If the word for Eastern is "meat" one should start thinking.
If countries or people won't follow the EU rules and restrictions those who like to stay healthy and continue eating it better start keeping animals to provide in their own needs. I heard a German butcher say one kilo of meat will cost easily 35 euros once all those "bad" livestock farmers are deleted from society. The reality is most people can not afford meat today.
Perhaps we all should do like my neighbor. We keep four chickens, a goat, cow, and 2-3 pigs. We harvest in autumn, eat us through the winter till Eastern, celebrate and plump up all new life and invest this way in our own needs. We provide ourselves with good, honest meat (who needs a butcher right?). Meat without 30% of water injected. If we do it this way there's no need to eat fake food, the chemicals wrapped in plastic the government wants us to consume. There's no need to consume food made out of 1% vegetables or fruit plus added vitamins, minerals, and pesticides all made by the pharmaceutical industry. Food that is good enough to harm the environment in many ways, food that causes cancer and autoimmune diseases. Food with hardly any vitamins and minerals left and if so we most likely are not even able to digest.
Yes, these are all discussions we have, me and my children. Next to it we search for answers and are sceptical if it comes to what is called "healthy" or not. If it comes to food,all those vegan stuff we buy and consume, most of it is fake. We pay a high amount for the idea we eat healthy, to save the environment but if it comes to it we do the opposite.
