soup on a wet day

My father was a fan of a very thin soup called Aigo Bollido. It's made with about a litre of water and herbs: sage,  thyme and bay leaf, along with a slug of olive oil. It's a hot pick me up to have with a hangover. It's not the kind of soup I like.

I like a soup with character and substance. I also don't like weighing things, if I can avoid it. I've used mug measurements for this soup.

If you follow this recipe, you'll end up with a hearty soup with good flavour. If you want to boost the flavour, throw a heaped tablespoon of houmous into your bowl of soup, it adds that tahini note and thickens the soup.

RECIPE

Ingredients
1/2 deseeded red chilli
bunch of parsley
1 mug of yellow split peas
2 mugs water
2 potatoes
3 carrots
4 cloves garlic
salt and pepper

houmous

Method
peel the carrots, potatoes and the garlic
chop the carrots and three cloves garlic, setting one clove aside
wash the parsley and chop the stems, leave a couple of handfuls of leaves to chop later
put the water, the carrots, potatoes, all the cloves of garlic but one into a pan, bring to the boil, simmer for 20 minutes
chop the remaining parsley and garlic clove
check soup and add salt and peppre
cook for 10 minutes more
add the chopped parsley and garlic and stir

serve and eat