Today is Julia Child’s 100th birthday! Happy Birthday Julia! Today we are bringing you a vegan, gluten-free version of her famous split pea soup. It is going to be fall before we know it, so time to start gathering delicious recipes such as this one, to get us through the cool evenings. While Julia’s version of this soup contains ham, we are altering the recipe to instead have a dash of liquid smoke to offer a similar smokey taste for which ham is known, but without the actual pig. This would be a great soup to make ahead of time, in a huge batch, and then eat throughout the week.

Vegan and Gluten-Free Split Pea Soup – Inspired by Julia Child’s Recipe

Serves 6

Soup Stock

3 quarts water or your favorite vegetable stock
2-3 teaspoons of liquid smoke (depending on how smokey you like it)

3 cups of mirepoix:

• 1 cup carrots, chopped
• 1 cup onions, chopped
• 1 cup celery, chopped celery

An Herb Bouquet:

• 3 bay leaves
• 1 teaspoon thyme
• 5 cloves

All tied in a cheesecloth

To make soup stock:

1. Put all of the ingredients in a large pot, bring to a boil, reduce heat, and let simmer about 1 hour.
2. Strain the broth through a sieve, into a separate container,  and discard the vegetables and herb bouquet.

To make the soup:

3 tablespoons margarine
2/3 cup diced celery
2/3 cup diced onions
1 cup diced carrots
3 tablespoons gluten-free flour (we like Better Batter gluten-free flour) (affiliate link)
2 quarts of soup stock made earlier
1 ½ cups split peas
Salt and freshly ground pepper

In a large pot, melt the margarine over medium heat. Once melted, add the carrots, onions and celery and cook for 5 minutes. Be sure to stir occasionally. Add the gluten-free flour and cook for 3 more minutes, stirring. Add the stock and split peas and simmer for 45 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Now is the time to blend the soup. There are two ways to do this: immersion blend and regular blender. The immersion blender is the easiest, especially with the soup still warm. When putting warm soup in a conventional blender it can cause the lid to burst off if you don’t take care to hold it down. If you do use a conventional blender, only blend a little at a time.

Once all blended, put in serving bowl, or dish into individual bowls, and serve.

Pea soup is a delicious, hearty option for cool nights, but is also a fantastic lunch to bring to work anytime.

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