When I won a contest with iHerb back in October, it was for products from a company called Great Eastern Sun. There weren’t many options for things to get that I could actually use, but I did end up with some great Organic Nori Sheets, minced garlic, English Breakfast Tea, and two bags of Dried Shiitake Mushrooms. I have always wanted to try dried mushrooms in a recipe and after seeing Sarah use them in a blended soup, I knew soup would be the way to go. However I didn’t want a blended soup, I wanted just a light veggie soup. I also had a bag of Dried Green Split Peas that had been begging to be cooked. Thus, soup it was!

Normally when you hear Split Peas you think of a blended soup as well. but I don’t have the appliances to do any mass blending. Plus, blended soups never really soup appealing to me. But the more I root veggie and squash soups on Pinterest and in the blog world, they have looked more and more delicious. (Hopefully if I get that blender I want for Christmas, I might try my hand at one…). Anyway, this soup is just a light “Asian” inspired veggie and split pea soup. It is super healthy and has a lovely flavor I attribute to the Artichokes and Shiitakes. The Shiitakes scared me at first when I was chopping them up since I had no idea how they would actually taste and come out once they were re-hydrated again. They also had this unique smell. It wasn’t bad, it was interesting…I kind of liked it 😉 But best of all, the soup came out perfect! This is a great first time dried-mushroom-user recipe. So give it a try and let me know your thoughts!Read More