Are you ready to turn a humble can of peas into a star meal?
When one of your favorite dishes from before your GERD or gastritis days is allowable (or encouraged) on your anti-inflammatory diet, you know you’re in for a treat! This is simply because these kinds of “elimination” diets tend to rule out a lot of different ingredients, which can mean your anti-inflammatory food is just, well, kinda bland. Sometimes this is even the point, as you try to give your stomach a chance to rest and heal up. But if something you’ve always enjoyed (whether that be eggs, watermelon, fish, etc.) happens to be encouraged on the diet, that’s a great opportunity for you to embrace that food further as something not only which is healthy and can sustain you, but which you can also look forward to eating.
This soup happens to be one I started making about 20 years ago, way before my gastritis days, as a cheap yet healthy and tasty dinner (often with some rice on the side) when I lived alone. It’s not the kind of meal I would normally invite someone over to partake of, but I ended up making it for a couple friends at that time when I didn’t have much else for a meal and they both LOVED it. One said it should be served at a restaurant. Considering the main ingredient was a can of peas, I felt pretty good about all this! (The only main difference was I used to use onions and garlic, not leek, but this is hardly a downgrade imo.)
Although I’ve never been a vegan, it also was part of my efforts to create more 100% plant-based meals. Peas are high in protein and fiber, but also are naturally very sweet, so this soup is really satisfying and nutritious, but also will pack a lot more FLAVOR than you might expect. When I added the chickpeas to create more texture in the meal, I wasn’t looking for a meat-substitute per se, but they really rounded out the dish and I noticed it felt a bit like biting into something meaty and satisfying besides just the liquid.
This soup incorporates some GERD/gastritis-compliant curry spices which work really well together here. They are also well cooked in the recipe, meaning the carminative effect will be greatly reduced. That said, if you know these spices (or spices generally) are inflammatory to your stomach, they can be omitted, and you will still have a delicious soup; I know from personal experience.
So let’s do this!
Serves:
1-2 as a main (2 with some rice)
You will need:
- Knife & cutting board
- Measuring cups & spoons
- Medium saucepan with lid, wooden stirring spoon
- Blender or small immersion blender
Ingredients:
- 1: 15oz. can peas, with the liquid (ideally, choose an organic brand with only added water like this)
- 1 leek whites, cleaned of grit and chopped or sliced
- 1/2 cup GERD/gastritis-compliant veggie or chicken stock (or use the liquid of one additional can of peas as a sub)
- 2/3 cup cooked, drained chickpeas (100g) – the chickpeas in a can is more than enough
- 1.5 tsp avocado oil or extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp ground coriander
- 1 bay leaf
- Can garnish with minced cilantro (or cook in towards the end)
Directions:
1.) Place the saucepan over high heat. Add oil and allow to heat up. Reduce to medium, add the chopped leek and saute for several minutes, until translucent and fragrant and maybe a little caramelized.
2.) Add the spices, bay leaf, and salt, and toss well. Then add the entire can of peas including the liquid, plus the additional 1/2 cup stock.
3.) Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce to low, cover, and simmer for around 15 minutes.
4.) Process the spiced pea mixture in blender (in batches as needed) until smooth, around one minute. Return the blended liquid to the saucepan, add the chickpeas, and allow to simmer around 5 more minutes. Garnish with chopped cilantro when serving, or it may be added when the chickpeas are added, if fresh herbs have an overly carminative effect on you.
Notes:
- You can further simmer uncovered if you want to thicken the soup
- Alternately, you can add a little more stock to thin the soup.
- Salt to taste.
- For friends without stomach inflammation: Feel free to add a good squeeze of lemon to their bowl when serving. (The title of this article notwithstanding, lol.)
