Homemade Vegetarian Pea Soup | Loulou

Ingredients

• 4 cups of dried split peas, rinsed in fresh water. (Note: when peas are wet they stick together quite dramatically .. don't be alarmed, they will unstick once they begin cooking.)
• 10 cups of broth (I used Knorr vegetable powdered broth base, mixed with water as per the directions on the package.)
• 1/2 large onion, or 1 medium onion, chopped.
• 1/2 pepper, either red, green or yellow, chopped.
• 2 carrots, peeled and chopped.
• 2 to 3 ribs of celery (I used the leaves too, which really added flavour, but are not necessary).
• 1 scottish bonnet pepper, cut finely. (These are spicy, so adjust or omit if you'd prefer)
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced.
• About 1 teaspoon salt.
• About 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground pepper.
• Juice from 1/2 lemon.
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill, or 1/2 teaspoon dried dill
• 2 - 3 tablespoons olive oil.
• Optional: Meat of some sort. A bit of smoky flavour is nice in this, though the soup is fine without it too. To achieve this I have used a natural extract in the past, called "liquid smoke".