Featured Recipe
Yellow Split Pea Soup with Cheese Dumplings
By Kate
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A rustic yellow split pea soup enriched with smoky pancetta and root vegetables, slow-simmered until hearty and creamy. Topped with tender cheese dumplings studded with sharp aged cheddar. The recipe swaps rutabaga for parsnip, lardons for diced pancetta for a subtler, cleaner pork flavor. The dumplings swap butter for olive oil and milk for cream, lending silkier texture. Simmering times adjusted slightly. Dicing the veggies uniformly ensures even cooking. Dumplings dropped gently, cooked until set with slight crumble on a tester. Small practical tips help troubleshoot and get consistent results.
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Prep:
45 min
Cook:
Total:
Serves:
4 to 6 servings
soup
comfort food
Cheesy
slow-cooked
Introduction
Yellow split peas soaked long enough to soften, then slow-cooked with parsnip instead of rutabaga — less bitter, deeper sweetness. Pancetta swaps salted pork lardons; cleaner fat, less salt in broth. Vegetables sweat gently before liquid to coax out aroma without browning. Soup thickens as peas burst, releasing creamy starch. Dumplings get olive oil in lieu of butter for a leaner texture, cream instead of milk for richness hidden under cheese sharpness. Timing slightly tweaked. Pressure cooker would shorten soak, but careful with handling dumplings when adding to avoid sinking or merging. Small tweaks create subtle textural differences hard to replicate but worth the extra care.
Ingredients
Soup
- 250 ml (1 cup) yellow split peas
- 2 carrots, peeled and diced
- 1 leek white part only, thinly sliced
- 1 small onion, finely chopped
- 1/2 parsnip, peeled and diced (substitutes rutabaga)
- 30 ml (2 tbsp) olive oil
- 150 g (5 oz) pancetta, diced (substitutes salted pork lardons)
- 1.25 L (5 cups) chicken stock
- 500 ml (2 cups) water
- 1 sprig fresh thyme
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 150 ml (2/3 cup) all-purpose flour
- 2.5 ml (1/2 tsp) baking powder
- 1 pinch salt
- 20 ml (1 tbsp) olive oil (replacing butter)
- 60 ml (1/4 cup) sharp aged cheddar, grated
- 60 ml (1/4 cup) heavy cream (replacing milk)
Cheese Dumplings
About the ingredients
You can swap pancetta for smoked ham hock if you desire extra smoky depth; just remove bones before serving. Parsnip is less typical than rutabaga but mellower and less fibrous, which means soup texture stays silkier, though rutabaga adds earthiness if preferred. Olive oil makes dumplings lighter, but butter works too if you want richer final flavor and more tender crumb. Heavy cream can be replaced with full-fat milk, but dumplings will be slightly less tender and rich. Baking powder gives lift but don’t forget the salt or dumplings turn bland. Soak those peas well — skipping this causes long cook times and grainy textures. No soaking? Boil peas 10 minutes, drain, then continue to simmer with broth, but soup will lose some creaminess.
Method
Soup
- 1. Soak split peas in cold water 4 hours or overnight, fully submerged. If water evaporates, top up to keep peas covered. Rinse well; drain.
- 2. Medium heat, heat olive oil in large heavy pot. Sweat carrots, leek, onion, parsnip about 6 minutes or until vegetables soften but don’t brown. Soft ‘sizzle’ sound. No color. Stir frequently.
- 3. Add pancetta, gently render fat and develop aroma but avoid crisping. The smell should be mild pork, not smoky burnt. Toss in peas, stir to coat in fat.
- 4. Pour in chicken stock and water, add thyme sprig. Bring pot to a rolling boil; big bubbling, steam rising like fog. Then reduce to a bare simmer. Cover loosely.
- 5. Simmer 1 hour 50 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes. Peas soften, start breaking apart, soup thickens — no longer watery but velvety. Peas should give a bit when pressed gently between fingers, not chalky or grainy.
- 6. Remove thyme. Taste, then season with salt and pepper carefully — broth concentrates as it reduces.
- 7. In bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, salt thoroughly. Even distribution of baking powder avoids uneven rising.
- 8. Add olive oil; use your fingertips to rub it into flour until mixture forms coarse crumbs, pea-sized lumps. Do not overwork or dough gets tough. Butter would have added richness, but olive oil keeps dumplings light.
- 9. Fold in grated cheddar and cream, stir gently with wooden spoon to homogenous sticky dough. Avoid overmixing; strings of gluten develop and toughen final texture.
- 10. Bring soup back to lively simmer with small bubbles on surface while adding dumplings. Using two spoons, drop four equal sized dollops into soup spaced apart to avoid them knitting together.
- 11. Immediately cover pot tightly to trap steam. Cook dumplings 13 minutes with no peeking; going by time misses texture, better judge by tester.
- 12. Test doneness by inserting skinny skewer or toothpick in center of dumpling. Pull out — residual crumbs or bits sticking to skewer mean supple but cooked dumpling. If skewer emerges clean, dumplings are dry or overcooked.
- 13. Serve piping hot, spooning generous soup and one dumpling per portion. Dumplings absorb some broth, slightly dense but tender, not gummy or pastey.
Dumplings
Technique Tips
Soaking peas is not optional to avoid uneven cooking and grit; keep water cold and cover so they don’t ferment or develop bad odors. When sweating vegetables, low heat prevents caramelization which would change flavor profile — subtle flavor layering here. Watch that pancetta renders fat gently; too hot and it crisps and darkens, losing softness. Soup needs occasional stirring, peeking too often plunges temperature, slows cooking. Dumplings must be dropped carefully — use spoons to portion and drop from low height. Cover pot to steam cook dumplings; no steam means tough or dry dumplings. Watch testing: crumbly but moist means done; squeaky clean skewer means overcooked or running dry. Adjust salt after simmer because broth reduces. Leftover soup thickens further when cooled — add water before reheating. Refrigerate dumplings separately if possible or reheat soup carefully to avoid soggy dough balls.
Chef's Notes
- 💡 Soak those split peas a must. Cold water, 4 hours or overnight. Not just for texture but also for even cooking. Water should always cover peas completely.
- 💡 Dicing root vegetables uniformly. Helps. No uneven cooking, no hard bits in soup. Maintain that tender texture. Even sizes—everything cooks at same rate.
- 💡 Adjust broth seasoning at the end only. Soup reduces. Concentrated flavors. Don't overdo the salt earlier. Can always add more, but it's hard to fix oversalted soup.
- 💡 Dumpling texture depend on mixing method. Don't overwork the dough. Coarse crumbs are good. Too mixed makes them tough. Olive oil lightens, but don’t forget salt.
- 💡 Steam cooking dumplings needs tight seal. Lid on pot—no peeking! Keep steam inside for gentle cooking. Tough dumplings come from losing steam. Trust the timer.
