February 19, 2011
(last updated April 7, 2023) 
When I had a typical, 9-6 working life, I relished the ritual of coming home at the end of the day and making myself supper. It was a way to flex my creative muscles after an otherwise analytical day, and I found it incredibly relaxing.
Now that I’m a student again, I miss the steady rhythms of full time working life, not least because I miss having the ability to cook something new and spontaneous each evening. Right now, my dinners are composed primarily of things I’ve batch cooked in advance or over the weekend. It’s not quite as creative or inspired as dinnertime used to be, but it is quickly expanding my repertoire of soups and stews, which I like. And this curried butternut squash and split pea soup is a recent highlight.
Last night, I got to D.C. after a long week of exams and counseling work. It was a perfect night for a rewarding, home cooked meal if ever there was one, but I needed that meal to be easy. Soups and stews are a go-to on such nights because I can prepare them in one single pot and allow them to simmer while I take care of other things.
My boyfriend had squash, onions and carrots from his produce box, split peas, and as always, a well stocked spice rack. I decided to combine sweet butternut squash with hearty, protein packed split peas for a filling meal, and I gave it flavor and character by adding curry, cumin, and cinnamon. It was so simple, all things considered, but the end result was absolutely delicious. This soup is a keeper, and I can’t wait to make it again on a cold evening!
Vegan Butternut Split Pea Soup
Author –Yields: 6 servings
Ingredients
- 1 cup yellow split peas (200g; you can substitute green split peas)
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 white or yellow onion, chopped
- 3 carrots carrots, peeled or scrubbed and diced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 small butternut squash, seeded, peeled, and cut into 1-inch cubes (1lb/455g after preparation)
- 4 cups vegetable broth (960ml)
- 2 teaspoons sweet curry powder
- 1 teaspoon turmeric
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 4-ingredient vegan sour cream (optional; substitute store-bought vegan sour cream or unsweetened, plain vegan yogurt)
Instructions
- Heat the oil in a large, heavy-bottomed pot over medium high heat. Add the onion and carrot. Sauté for 7 minutes, or until the onions are clear and the carrots are soft. Add the garlic and cook, stirring frequently, for another 2 minutes.
- Add the squash, split peas, broth, curry powder, turmeric, cumin, salt, and pepper to the pot, along with 2 cups of water. Bring everything to a boil and reduce to a simmer.
- Cover and simmer the soup for 1 hour, or until the split peas are tender (they’ll still retain their shape). Uncover, taste, and adjust the salt and pepper as needed.
- You can serve the soup chunky or use an immersion blender to blend it partially or entirely. Serve, with a spoonful of vegan sour cream or unsweetened vegan yogurt if desired.
I recommend serving the soup with a fresh salad or a side of avocado toast–or both. We had ours with avo toast and an easy kale salad, and it was a perfectly satisfying meal. If you’re only serving 1-2, you’ll have plenty of leftovers, which you can enjoy for a couple of nights for quick dinners, or you can freeze them for future busy nights. Easy peasy.
Hope you’ll give this tasty soup a try–and if you do, let me know how you like it! As you can see, the soup has a lot of wonderful texture when you don’t blend it. But you can also blend it (partially or totally) for a creamy, thick mixture.
What’s your favorite Friday or weekend ritual? And what sort of food goes with it?
xo
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Categories: Recipes,
Soups
Ingredients: Butternut Squash
Dietary Preferences: Gluten Free, Soy Free, Tree Nut Free
Ingredients: Butternut Squash
Dietary Preferences: Gluten Free, Soy Free, Tree Nut Free
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I made butternut squash soups before, I also made yellow split pea soup before, but never together.
I roasted my squash first. Then I decided to make that soup. I sautéd onions, garlic, two carrots, one stalk celery in olive oil, added one cup of rinsed peas, sautéd for a minute, added cinnamon, and turmeric, salt and pepper, chicken broth and water. Cooked until peas are tender, then added the squash, cooked for ten more minutes . I hand blended it after.
Thanks for sharing how you made it, Sarah!
I made the soup a couple of days ago and, WOW!, serious yumminess! I had to leave out the curry powder because I had none and I subbed in a tsp of nutmeg. Still came out seriously yummy. Thanks for the recipe!
Hooray! Glad you liked.
Looks grand. Healthy comfort food at its best!
Holy wow. I made this… okay I must confess my awesome mom made this for me today while I was at school – and it was awesome! seriously. So. Good. She didn’t blend the peas and the butternut together but the texture of the butternut with the chewy yummy peas was really nice – I haven’t had peas in a long time.
One thing though: the instructions at the bottom say lentils instead of peas. Also I think that the cooking time for the peas might need to be adjusted. My mom said that after 45 minutes they were still hard… maybe like 10-20 minutes longer? Just a thought! Awesome reciPEA Gena (:
Sarah
Fixed the “lentils” typo — thanks!
I too have limited amounts of time for cooking during the week, so often look forward to cooking on weekends 🙂 Yay for Fridays!
Not sure how I missed this post…but just wanted to say, wow the soup looks wonderful!
And so happy that you have some things to look forward to during the week to help get you THROUGH the week. My Fri nite ritual? Working. Oh well 🙂
Yum. Nothing like love (and soup) to warm our hearts! You often mention M’s produce box. Wouldn’t happen to be a delivery from Washington’s Green Grocer, would it? That’s what I get delivered to my house, and there’s nothing like “box day” – a giant goodie box of fruits and veggies on my doorstep. What more could a gal want?
Sure is, missy!!! I’ve never done a box or CSA, so it’s super exciting to me when I arrive to the box on Friday at M’s place.
Wait, so, you’re a DC gal? I smell a meetup…
The beautiful color alone is reason to make this amazing soup! Thanks so much for sharing your rituals and your wonderful recipe. 🙂
This sounds and looks absolutely delicious, but it sucks that I am allergic to butternut squash 🙁 Do you think it would workout if I used sweet potatoes instead?
Genius! My squash soup always leaves me starving afterwards. It’s more of an opening than a meal. The addition of the split peas really adds to the color and I’ll be that you feel full and not starving afterwards.
Love it!!!
L
hip pressure cooking
making pressure cooking hip, one recipe at a time!
Ooh, everyone seems to have split pea soup in their brains! This is the fifth post I’ve read with split pea soup…but honestly, I can’t ever get enough. I really love to blend different recipes together to form my own “perfect” soup for me. 🙂
I certainly love the butternut squash in here…it adds a natural sweetness!
My favorite Friday ritual…eh, don’t have any. Every Friday is hectic as hell!
I made a soup with butternut and split peas a few months ago. And coconut. So good! Great combo.
I made it tonight and Wow! Scrum. ptious! The only change I made was to add cayenne pepper. But don’t go by me on that, I put cayenne in my fruit smoothies. Thanks!
It’s crazy that food cooks so quickly in the pressure cooker! Must get pressure cooker . . . must get pressure cooker . . . LOL
The soup looks perfect. So you think I could just dump everything into a crock pot and let it cook all day?
Question:
When you cook your split peas, do you soak them and and cook them to take the gasses out first then make them in your soup, or just throw them in as is and let them do their thing?
looks amazing. I am completely void of spontaneity in the kitchen. I don’t have the cooking confidence to create anything without a recipe!
While its commendable that you are eating healthy during busy times, sadly I don’t think pressure cooking is very healthy. (Source: Gabriel Cousen’s “conscious eating” ) I used to own a pressure cooker (every Indian household has one), but I gave it away to a friend (delighted her), when I found out that it is one of the worst ways of cooking… forces me to take time and cook food, or avoid time consuming foods when I’m too busy.
I like your titles! Simple, direct and to the point. It’s always clear what the recipe is, which I appreciate. 🙂
I like your titles! Simple, direct and to the point. It’s always clear what the recipe is, which I appreciate.
I made two soups yesterday – one was butternut (with puree’d cannellini beans) and the other was split pea! If only I had combined the two 😉
First of all – Gena thank you for your blog! I used to be a vegetarian and then I just got away from that lifestyle. I’m trying to transition now to not just vegetarian but vegan. Your blog is so interesting and inspiring and down-to-earth and you truly do keep me on my toes!
Secondly, the soup looks delish! Can’t wait to try it! Just in case you still want a name I suggest SUNSHINE IN A BOWL! 🙂
Wow, this soup looks wonderful, thanks Gena! I lack time in the kitchen on week days too thanks to my work and training schedule, so I like to take a little time on the weekends to prepare for the week by soaking beans in the fridge, making fresh nut or seed milks and starting a new batch or two of fresh sprouts. If I have more time, maybe a dehydrator recipe.
My boyfriend and I used to be in a LDR for a year and a half so I know how you feel when you wake up and know that you’ll see your sig. other by the end of the day. =) Now we have Saturdays off together, so we sleep in and when we wake up we make fresh orange juice by blending up tangerines or some other type of mini orange and pushing the juice through a sieve (not a fan of pulp). Then we watch Dexter (awesome TV show) and the rest of the day is devoted to studying.
Two of my favorite soups in one… pure heaven!
i cheated and bought TJs bnut squash soup. being a newly minted city girl, i’m finding it hard to carve out time for cooking/blogging with my new schedule. i’m making food on sundays and putting it together as i go through the week. it’s exciting but def an adjustment!
Baby Lillian has a dinner of pureed butternut squash and peas on a regular basis. So she should transition smoothly to this soup soon enough. 🙂
Oh yum! Food twin I heart you! I’m mad I already did my grocery shopping yesterday! I’ll have to make this the following week! can’t wait!
Butternut squash and split pea are my two favorite soups! You are a mind reader:)
My favorite ritual is Indulgence Friday on the bloggity blog! It always challenges me to think of a new dessert recipe. This week, I made a raw chocolate fudge cake!:)
When I saw the title of the post I thought “please use the pressure cooker!” LOL
I bought my pressure cooker because of you and M (used it last night to make taco-flavored lentils!) and I now keep two jars of split peas on hand at all times, because it’s the perfect addition to pressure cooker soup recipes. I just need to pick up a squash and I’m ready to make this gorgeous-looking soup!
Oh no! I just roasted up the last of my butternut squash for dinner tonight! Funnily enough, I used almost exactly the spices you’ve showcased here 🙂 Will definitely have to pick up more squash soon!
Every Friday, Suave Slav and I go to a salsa club to keep practicing our dancing and to just have fun. Definitely my favorite ritual 🙂
Split pea and butternut squash are without a doubt two of the best soups out there. Combining them sounds amazing!!
Such a sweet post. I feel the love. I also like the looks of that soup because I’m not a hard core split pea fan but I do like me some sweet butternut. Hence, the perfect recipea. I told you I was feeling the love.
I ate steamed butternut and kale chips today. It was a Gena-esque day. 🙂
Sounds delicious! What is the second ingredient? Green or yellow ______? Thanks for the good eats, sunshine!
xo,
Tina
Tina, I think that’s green or yellow split peas.