Recipes

I have dedicated this week to cleaning out my fridge and pantry, which are beginning to overflow with remnants of meals past. Cooking for two most of the time, I always have leftovers and they just seem to pile up everywhere. For today’s pantry clean out, I was inspired by some yellow split peas, basically a yellow lentil, that I bought a while back and never used. I combined it with some veggies, frozen spinach, and to make it a complete meal topped it off with some chicken sausage. Although it is perfect on its own.

Weight Watchers Yellow Split Pea Soup
Points: 5 Weight Watchers PointsPlus
Servings: 8
Serving Size: about 1 1/4 cups
Nutritional Info: 103.9 calories, 2.5 g fat, 15.9 g carbohydrates, 5.5 g fiber, 6.1 g protein

Ingredients
1 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
5 garlic cloves, minced
2 large carrots, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 red pepper, chopped
1/2 pint cherry tomatoes, chopped
1 pound yellow split peas of lentils
1.5 cups frozen spinach
3 sprigs thyme
8 cups vegetable or chicken broth
1 tbsp smoked paprika
1 bay leaf
Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions
1. Warm olive oil over medium heat. Add the onions, carrots, celery, garlic, red pepper, and cherry tomatoes. Cook until the onions begin to become translucent.

2. Add the bay leaf, thyme, paprika, spinach, and yellow split peas. Stir together and let cook for 2-3 minutes until thyme is fragrant.

3. Add the chicken or vegetable broth and bring to a boil. Cover and cook for 1 hour or until the yellow split peas are the desired consistency.

4. Season with salt and pepper. Serve on it’s own or topped with some chicken sausage and Parmesan cheese (extra points).