Today for lunch, I present Finnish-Style Pea Soup. I found this recipe through Constance at The DIY Diet, whom I’ve profiled before. Constance has tons of really low-cal recipes, and I love a good soup. I’ve actually never had pea soup before, but I had some pork to use up (which I figured could substitute for the ham), so I thought I’d give it a try.
Recipe notes:
I didn’t want to make a ton of this, so I cut it down by using 1/2 cup split peas, 1 whole carrot, 3 oz pork tenderloin, 1 stalk celery, 1 red potato, and 1/4 red onion. I put some black pepper in, but skipped the salt.
Nutrition facts:
173 calories for the soup (recipe here)
23 calories for the two tbsp Kraft Fat Free Cheddar Cheese I put on top of the first batch
Review: 3/5
Mine didn’t come out as smooth and creamy as in the picture that Constance posted. I considered blending it, but that would also blend up the chunks of carrot and pork, so I vetoed that idea. Also, mine came out higher in calories than Constance’s (hers was 120 cals/serving), but I think that’s more because my servings were probably about 1.5 cups each.
Unfortunately, for me this just didn’t have enough flavor. I added some cheese to try to make it better, but it still didn’t really help a lot. Maybe it was a bad idea to substitute the pork for the ham, but I didn’t think it would make a huge difference?
When I had a second bowl of this (on a different day! Not immediately after the first one), it was better because I added a sprinkling of dried thyme to it. I think the recipe might also be improved by using low-sodium chicken broth instead of just plain water – I like Herb-Ox Sodium Free Chicken Broth, which is only 10 cals/packet, and I think adding even one packet might do the trick.