Pea Soup de La Mancha

In central California the words pea soup either defined San Francisco fog or a small restaurant chain further down the coast called Pea Soup Anderson’s which was notable in that their restaurants were housed inside giant old-world windmills.  One of those restaurants survives in Buellton, California and still serves up a hearty bowl of the soup that warms the coldest day.

Pea soup isn’t as popular as it once was (at least I think it used to be popular).  Having a taste for it I searched my local super for anything other than Campbell’s and was out of luck.  So I decided to create my own and named it Pea Soup de La Mancha for the famous windmill jousting poet and the fact that it is spicier than you may have had before.

 

 To create a base taste I started with a quart of prepared spicy black bean soup from Pacific Foods, which is sold in those paper containers that look like giant juice boxes and then improvised along the way.  Pacific is an organic foods company based in Tualatin, Oregon.  If you can’t find their soups in your store try something similar from one of the “gourmet” brands like Wolfgang Puck or Amy’s, both of which make a similar spicy black bean soup.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 box (container) of prepared spicy black bean soup
• 8 oz dry peas or if you choose, fresh peas or a good quality frozen pea
• 8 oz low-sodium white beans
• 3 slices of bacon – sliced very thick
• 1 medium white onion
• ½ tsp cracked black pepper
• ½ tps dried basil
• ½ tsp dried thyme

PREPARATION:

You have two choices for using the bacon.  The first is to trim almost all of the fat off and not pre-cook the rest.  My choice was to fry the slices about 90% of the way you would usually cook them, pat the grease off, let them cool a bit and then cut them into bits somewhere around  ¼” .

Pour the prepared soup into a crock pot, add the peas, bacon, white beans and onion chopped into largish pieces (about 3/8”).  Put the lid on, cook on high for 4 hours and reduce to low for an additional 2-3 hours and serve with some slices of crusty buttered sourdough bread.

A LITTLE MORE ABOUT PEA SOUP ANDERSONS:


I think the trademark windmill is long gone

The town of Buellton goes back to 1865 and grew over the years as a tourist stop between Los Angeles and San Francisco.  Anton Andersen came along in about 1924 and opened a restaurant, which in a way still exists today.  Buellton became a major destination after the nearby Hearst castle was opened to the public and the restaurant changed hands several times.  Today it and the town are more touristy than authentic and the restaurant is often commented on for its expansive gift shop than its food, but it still runs circles around most run-of-the-mill chain restaurants.


QUOTE FOR THE DAY:

“To feel safe and warm on a cold wet night, all you really need is soup.”

- Laurie Colwin

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