Exotic Indian Bean & Split-Pea Soup

[Rhea]

Mary, you are amazing! Your soy bean recipes are out of this world -- fantastic! I, as a vegetarian, particularly appreciate them. So full of flavour and variety. Thank you so much for all your hard work and inspiration.

Rhea

[Rhea]

Like all Mary's soy bean recipes that I've tried, this is delicious. I cooked it as described, then added quite a lot of extra water -- about 6 more cups -- and half-blended it with my stick blender, because i wanted a thinner consistency -- I love drinking hot soup from a mug!

Because i'd added more water, I also had to increase the flavourings -- another tablespoonful of garam masala, a teaspoon of ground coriander and a teaspoon of ground cumin and more salt. Then I added the juice of a lemon which to me always seems to 'lift' the flavour of a bean soup...

And, wow, it was awesome. What I'm finding with these soy bean recipes is that they make me feel satisfied more quickly than do ordinary beans or lentils -- so I eat less. Must be to do with the large amount of complete protein in the soy beans.

So here's a happy -- and full! -- let's-do-luncher --

Rhea

[stl_viewer]

This is delicious!  I've made it several times and will definitely be keeping a bottle of garam masala in my spice rack from now on (along with herbes de provence).  It's a great change from "regular" split pea soup...

[barrypaxton]

What is garam masala? If I can't find it in the store, is there something that I can use instead?

Thanks,
Ollie

[stl_viewer]

Hi, Ollie, garam masala (pronounced along the lines of guh-ruhm muh-SAH-luh, at least that's how it sounds when my Indian colleagues at work say it) is a combo of spices used in Indian cooking.

It can contain a variety of spices, but here is the listing for McCormick's version, and I think it's pretty typical:  GARAM MASALA (INCLUDES CORIANDER, BLACK PEPPER, CUMIN, CARDAMOM AND CINNAMON)

To me, it's an acquired taste for your average American. I didn't care for it initially--in the same way I did not initially like cilantro when I first tasted it--but it's really grown on me.  Usually, when I see "cinnamon" as an ingredient, I automatically think "dessert". But strangely, I find this spice delicious in soup (the only place I've tried it so far).

In fact, I've been eating this recipe all week, which is what prompted me to post. 

[barrypaxton]

I just found a recipe for it so I can make my own garam masala. Here's the link to the recipe.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/easy-garam ... etail.aspx

Ollie