I love shopping at local farmer’s markets and eating seasonal foods.  I’ve recently started making more and more soups with the produce I get at the market.  Soups use simple basic ingredients and, when homemade, are much healthier for you than conventional brands (Have you ever looked at the sodium levels on the labels?).  Soups are also a great way to use food you’re having a hard time finishing–like celery and carrots.   I love eating them with hummus and other dips, but after a while that gets old.  Fortunately, they are the quintessential starters for most soups, and as the weather starts to get a little bit cooler, soups can be a delicious and healthy way to fill you up right.

I was fortunate to be the guest shopper at the Marvista farmer’s market today for Marvistamom.com and picked up some delicious ingredients for my soup.  You can check out my shopping experience here and see the fun stuff happening there every Sunday.

Old Fashion Split Pea Soup

This recipe was inspired from the back of a Arrow Mills dried split pea package–with a few twists.

Ingredients

• 1 Onion
• 3 Celery Sticks
• 5 Chopped Carrots
• 1Tbsp Canola Oil
• 1 Tbsp Soy Sauce
• 1 Tsp Garlic Power
• 1 Tsp Cumin
• 1 Tsp Salt
• 1 Package of split peas (Arrow Mills brand)
• Optional (thick cut of Black Forrest Ham)
• Black pepper to taste

Directions

• Cook the onion in oil with spices (except pepper) on medium high heat for 1 min in Soup pot
• Add 2 quarts of water (8 cups) and package of split peas
• Add soy sauce
• Bring soup to a boil, once the pot begins to boil reduce heat to medium and cook for 1 hr.
• After 1 hr add chopped celery, carrots and ham and cook for an additional 1/2 hr.
• Once the soup is done, pour in a bowl and add your favorite  toppings i.e. black pepper, Parmesan cheese, hot sauce etc and enjoy.