MoFo Day 8 - Split Pea Bessara

Another cold bright day here in Edinburgh and I'm making more soup. Bessara is a spicy Moroccan soup often made with dried broad beans (fava beans) which can also be made with chickpeas or split peas instead. I don't have access to dried broad beans, so I opted for yellow split peas instead.          

Bessara    

250 g yellow split peas
1 medium onion, finely chopped  
4 cloves of garlic, crushed
3 Tbsp fresh parsley, finely chopped  
2 tsp paprika
1 tsp cumin
large pinch of cayenne pepper
salt and pepper to taste 
700 mls (3 cups) vegetable stock  

Saute onion and garlic in a small amount of vegetable stock for 4-5 minutes. Add spices, split peas, parsley and remaining vegetable stock, bring to the boil, turn down heat and simmer for 20-30 minutes, until split peas are soft and adding additional vegetable stock if necessary. Blend until smooth and serve with a garnish of chopped fresh parsley.
Serves 3

I enjoyed this soup, although I had to increase the spices from the original recipe. I served mine with a couple of mini wholemeal pitta breads and a topping of salad leaves as well as the parsley garnish. It would also be good with a garnish of defrosted frozen petits pois as in Robin Roberston's Yellow Split Pea Soup with Green Pea Garnish from Vegan Planet which is one of my favourite split pea soups