Mum always made the best pea and ham soup. This is my version, replacing the ham with liquid smoke for smokiness (of course) and barley for chewiness.

A steaming bowl of Smokey Pea and Barley Soup

Recently I’ve gotten really big on soaking or sprouting legumes and grains, to make them more easily digestible. You don’t need to soak yellow split peas, but I do for a couple of hours at least, along with the barley. Then the creation of this homey, smokey soup can begin.

Ingredients for Smokey Pea and Barley Soup

200g yellow split peas (soaked for at least 2 hours, then rinsed and drained)
50g barley (soaked with the split peas)
1 tbsp coconut oil
1 brown onion
1 medium or large carrot
1.5 litres vegetable stock (you may need to add more water near the end of cooking)
1/2 tsp liquid smoke (add more later after tasting, if you find it needs more)
1 bay leaf
sea salt to taste

The onion and carrots are chopped and soften in the pot with some coconut oil.

Onions and carrots softening in coconut oil

In goes the drained split peas and barley, and everything else, actually.

Everything but the water…

This is brought to a simmer and then I clamp on the lid and turn the heat very low so it just bubbles gently. And it bubbles gently for a couple of hours or more, until the split peas are falling apart.

I did notice that there was no scum forming on the surface, which is usually the case for cooking split peas and such. I wonder if all the scum-forming stuff went down the sink with the soak water?

After an hour of simmering… No surface scum!