Vegan Instant Pot Split-Pea Soup

Brief Introduction

I found some recipes somewhere on the Internet, and have significantly mangled them into the below. The original vegan one was pretty weak on flavor in the beginning, I added the smoked paprika, chipotle powder, and soy sauce to help offset the lack of bacon or ham hock. The vegan original also had some kind or fake meat thing in it, I never used it because it was processed garbage.

I also started sautéing the ingredients rather than just dumping in the whole mess. Using the Maillard reaction on the vegetables comes through again. You could do 4-6 slices of chopped up bacon instead of the olive oil, if you’re into that sort of thing. We don’t miss the bacon and decided that the calories aren’t worth it.

Servings: Enough for us to eat Dinner and Lunch the next day, see reheating instructions below.

Time: Like … 30 minutes to prep and chop. Then waiting on the Instant Pot for another ~40. So just over an hour.

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 yellow onion, chopped
• 2 medium carrots, diced
• 2 stalks celery, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, minced (I’m not ashamed to say I use the jarred)
• Spice Pack:
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
  • 1 teaspoon dried basil leaves
  • 1 teaspoon dried thyme
  • heavy pinch to 1/4 teaspoon chipotle powder (cook’s choice)
• 2 tbsp Soy Sauce or Liquid Aminos
• 2 cups/1 pound dried split peas, picked through
• 2 medium red potatoes, diced
• 8 cups reconstituted vegetable stock concentrate, rocket hot if possible (it helps getting the IP up to temp faster)
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Put the Instant Pot on the medium heat saute setting, and add the olive oil to start warming it up.
2. Add onion, carrots, and celery to the pot, sprinkle some salt, and the veggies soften and start browning. Add the garlic and the spice pack and move that around for 30 seconds until fragant.
3. Add the Soy Sauce or Aminos, let them thicken up for just a moment, maybe 15 seconds.
4. Add the split peas and potatoes. Stir that around until the spices and herbs coat the peas and taters.
5. FINALLY, dump in the vegetable stock and stir to combine.
6. Put on the pressure lid, set valve to Sealing, press Cancel to turn off the Sauté function, press the Soup/Stew button, and adjust to 20 minutes. It will take about 10 minutes for the IP to get to temp.
7. When the timer goes off, do a Quick release (will take 5-7 minutes). Stir (because it does separate a bit), keep a sharp eye for the bay leaf and throw it away when you find it, and then eat it like you mean it!

Reheating

We usually leave the soup in the IP insert and affix a silicone lid to store overnight. The next day, things will look bleak. The split peas will have soaked up the liquid and the thing will look like you could lay brick with it. Fear not.

When the soup is cooking the night before or at this very moment, you got a quart-sized mason jar and into put: 1/2 tsp dried basil, 1/2 tsp dried thyme, a pinch each of smoked paprika and chipotle pepper, and 1 tbsp of stock concentrate. Filled it with warm water, put a lid on it, and carefully shook to combine.

An hour before lunch time, put the insert in the IP, put it on the Warm setting (also known as the Cancel button) and stir occasionally/when it loosens enough to let you. Put the herby-stock in the microwave for a minute or two, and stir it into the soup until you reach the desired consistency. You could just use water, but we found that it dilutes the flavor too much and it’s just not as good as the day before.