Recipe: Regina's Split Pea Soup with Oven-Smoked Tomatoes

Smoked tomatoes are great for pasta sauces, coulis, or a winter salad. They can go into the freezer and be taken out to add flavor to a sauce or soup.

Oven-Smoked Tomatoes

Makes 48 quarters

• 1 dozen Roma tomatoes, cut in quarters and placed on a rimmed baking sheet
    • 1 tablespoon sea salt
    • 1 tablespoon cracked black pepper
    • 1/2 cup olive oil
    • 3 tablespoons liquid hickory smoke

Mix 1/2 cup of olive oil with 3 tablespoons of liquid hickory smoke and drizzle over cut roma tomatoes, then sprinkle with the salt and pepper. Bake at 250 degrees for 90 minutes.

Remove the tomatoes from the baking sheet and reserve the liquid to flavor the split pea soup.

Split Pea Soup

• 1 medium white onion, pureed
    • 3 tablespoons butter
    • 16 ounces split peas
    • 8 cups water (add smoke-flavored tomato liquid from baking sheet)
    • oven-smoked tomatoes, to garnish soup
    • 1 teaspoon minced garlic
    • 1 teaspoon minced fresh oregano

Place four-quart soup pot over medium heat and melt butter then add onion puree and simmer for four minutes. Rinse split peas and add to onion and cover with water and tomato liquid. Cook over medium heat for one hour, stirring every 10 to 15 minutes.

After 30 minutes of cooking, add garlic and oregano and cook for another 30 minutes.

Adjust seasoning (I like to add a few dashes of Tabasco sauce).

Serve in soup bowl and garnish with smoked tomato wedges in the center. Serve with bread sticks. Freeze any leftover tomatoes to add to a pasta sauce at a later date.

To read Regina's article about making a new kind of soup in the new year, click here.

Regina Charboneau is the owner of Twin Oaks Bed & Breakfast in Natchez, Mississippi. She is the author of Regina's Table at Twin Oaks.