Split Pea with Beef and Barley Soup

As previously mentioned, I never make beef. I mean, never. However, at Kevin's request, I decided to make a beef soup tonight. I found this recipe on the Sunset Magazine website, and decided it would be perfect for Kevin. I've never used a recipe from this magazine before, but it is linked to the Cooking Light site, so I decided to have faith. I rarely trust online recipes from sites I don't know, because I've been burned before (no pun intended), but I thought I'd give it a try. Okay, anyway, I didn't try this one, but Maya liked it, and I'll let Kevin give his review later. I enjoyed making it. My house smelled like a Jewish grandmother's house. What could be better?
Carrots, onions, parsnips, celery, and leeks. This was my first experience with leeks, and I think they add a nice dimension to a soup.

This was a very long cooking soup, but it was worth it, for my husband and baby's happy bellies.

FYI - if you decide to try this recipe, note the fact that it makes a whopping 32 cups of soup - EIGHT quarts!

Kevin had 3 or 4 bowls of this. We still have like 25 bowls left...

I ate some leftover Lentil Sloppy Joes (Snobby Joes, from Veganomicon) that were in the freezer.


The Critique
This meal was fantastic. It combined all of my favorite things - split pea soup and meat. The meat was extremely tender and well cooked and the split pea soup. The seasoning was not overdone and it did not taste too salty or not salty enough. It had a very healthy but pleasing flavor, and tasted very similar to soups that my Grandmother and Aunt Heddy would make. It's tough to compete with their soups and this one really is on the same caliber if not even better. I give this a wholehearted 5 bowls of soup.