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Combine simple wholesome ingredients like carrots, sweet potato, and bell peppers with protein-packed split peas to make a healthy Vegan Split Pea Soup. This plant-based soup is full of fiber, protein, while still being low in calories.
Whether you’re vegan, looking to add meatless meals to your weekly dinners, or just want to eat more vegetables, this vegan split pea soup recipe is perfection. You can enjoy the soup as a meal on its own, or pair it with your favorite bread. This is also a great recipe for meal planning or making in your slow cooker!
If you like hearty vegan soup recipes, you will love this black bean lentil chili and butternut sweet potato soup!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Easy Way to Eat More Veggies: A vegan vegetable soup is a great way to add meals that are full of vegetables and fiber into your diet. If you’ve been stuck trying to think of ways to get more vegetables into your meals, you need to try this soup!
- Split Peas are Packed with Protein: Did you know that split peas are a protein powerhouse?! This soup has over 18 grams of protein, which is amazing for a plant-based recipe.
- Ultimate Comfort Food: Who doesn’t love soup? Especially when the weather is chilly outside. This vegetarian split pea soup will warm you up, nourish your body, and help you feel full and cozy.
Table of Contents
Ingredients
- Split Peas: These legumes are not only full of fiber and protein, but they are also very budget-friendly. This recipe calls for green split peas, but you can use yellow if you need to. Yellow split peas have a more mellow flavor, so keep that in mind.
- Vegetable Broth: Since this is a vegan recipe, it’s important to use a vegetable-only broth or stock. If you don’t need it to be vegan, you can also use a low-sodium chicken stock.
- Aromatics: Onions, celery, carrots, and garlic are used to create a flavor foundation for many soup recipes. They release a strong, pleasant smell and flavor while cooking.
- Bell Peppers: Add a little bitterness with green bell pepper and a little sweetness with red bell pepper in this delicious pea soup.
- Sweet Potato: Increase the richness and creaminess of the soup with sweet potato. You could also use regular potatoes, but those are higher in carbs.
- Seasonings: Fragrant and earthy seasonings like oregano, paprika, cayenne pepper, and bay leaf add depth and flavor to this vegan soup.
See the recipe card below for exact ingredient amounts, nutritional information, and detailed instructions.
Variations & Dietary Modifications
- Experiment with Other Veggies: The possibilities for vegetables in this soup are endless. Root vegetables like parsnips or turnips add a delicious flavor. Leafy greens like spinach and kale add more nutrients and a gorgeous color.
- Try It with Lentils: If you don’t have split peas on hand, try this recipe with lentils instead. They also have a high amount of fiber and protein, and are just as affordable. You could also try my lentil and chicken soup or lentil potato soup.
- Add More Protein: Many traditional split pea soups use ham, so feel free to add that to this recipe. You could also try ground chicken, shredded chicken, lean ground beef, or lean ground pork. If you want to keep this healthy split pea soup vegetarian, you can add tofu.
How to Make Vegan Split Pea Soup
This easy vegan soup is a great way to add more vegetables to your weekly meals, while still eating plenty of protein. You’ll need a large soup pot or a Dutch oven to make this recipe, along with a blender.
Step 1: Soften the Aromatics. Heat your soup pot over medium heat and add onion, celery, bell pepper, and carrots, along with a bit of broth to it. Sauté them for about 10 minutes, or until the vegetables start to soften.
Step 2: Add the Sweet Potatoes. Then, add the garlic and spices and saute them for an additional 5 minutes. Add the sweet potatoes over the aromatics.
Step 3: Pour in the Broth. Add the broth to your pot along with the split peas and bay leaf.
Step 4: Blend It Up. Reduce the heat to medium-low and place the lid on the pot. Let the soup simmer for about 45 minutes, or until the split peas soften and burst open. Then, transfer half of the soup to a blender and puree it. Add the puree back into the soup pot and stir to combine it.
Soup and salad are a great combination. This savory balsamic bacon apple salad goes so well with split pea soup!
Expert Tips
- Try an Immersion Blender: Instead of transferring hot soup to a blender, use an immersion blender to puree the soup a bit. An immersion blender is submerged directly into the soup pot and is great for creamy soup recipes.
- Toast the Seasonings: Bring out more of the flavor in the seasonings by adding them to the pot with the aromatics at the beginning. This toasts them a bit and deepens the flavor.
- A Pinch of Baking Soda: If your split peas take too long to soften, add a pinch of baking soda in with them. The baking soda acts as a tenderizer and helps soften the split peas, making the soup creamier.
Storage Directions
- Storing: Keep leftover soup in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. You can also freeze this soup for about 60 days.
- Reheating: Reheat the soup in the microwave in 60-second intervals until it is heated through, or reheat it in a pot on the stove over medium heat. Be sure to thaw frozen soup for 24 hours in the refrigerator before reheating it.
- Make Ahead: Soup is always a great dish for meal prep or making in advance. Freeze your soup in portions for an easy dinner during the week or to enjoy for lunch. You can also chop your vegetables a day or two in advance and keep them in the fridge until it’s time to make the soup.
Serving Suggestions
I love a good soup, especially in the fall or winter! This vegan soup recipe makes it easy to enjoy a filling, protein-packed meal without the need for meat. It’s a great way to eat more vegetables and to cut back on meat for one or two meals during the week.
- Nothing goes together the way soup and bread do! Make a loaf of low-carb cauliflower bread or gluten-free pumpkin corn bread to dip into your soup.
- Add even more veggies to dinner with a side of roasted winter vegetables. The crispy, browned texture of the vegetables pairs well with the creamy soup.
Recipe FAQs
If you need your soup in a hurry, the Instant Pot is a great alternative to simmering it on the stove for an hour! First, use the Saute setting to cook down your aromatics for 2-5 minutes. Then add the rest of the ingredients and secure the lid on the Instant Pot. Set it to Manual High pressure for 15 minutes, then do a Natural Release for 15 minutes. Use Quick Release to release the remaining pressure and blend half of the soup. It’s ready to serve in half the time!
If the last thing you want to do when you come home is cook, try making this vegan soup in the crockpot! Add all of the ingredients to your slow cooker at once, then set it to Low and cook for 8-9 hours or cook it for 5-6 hours on high. The soup is ready to serve at the end of the day with hardly any effort on your part!
More Delicious Veggie Soup Recipes
If you tried this Vegan Split Pea Soup recipe or any other recipe on my website, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how you go in the 📝 comments below.
Vegan Split Pea Soup
Ingredients
- 1 cup Onion , peeled and diced
- 2 Celery Stalks, diced
- 1 Green Bell Pepper, diced
- 1 Red Bell Pepper, diced
- 1 tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 2 cloves Garlic, minced
- 1 cup Carrots, peeled and diced
- 1 cup Sweet Potato, peeled and diced
- 2 cups Split Peas
- 6 cups Vegetable Broth, low sodium
- ½ teaspoon Oregano
- ½ teaspoon Cayenne Pepper
- ¼ teaspoon Paprika
- 1 Bay Leaf
- Salt & Pepper to taste
- 1 Green Onion , sliced, for garnish
Instructions
- Heat a large pot over medium-high heat. Add onion, celery, bell pepper and carrots with a splash or two of broth, salt and pepper. Cook until veggies soften about 10 minutes.
- Add garlic and spices sauté another 5 minutes. Pour broth into pot with sweet potato, split peas and bay leaf.
- Turn heat down to medium-low. Simmer 45 minutes covered until split peas begin to soften and pop.
- Remove half the soup, place in a blender and pulse to puree. Add pureed soup back to the pot and stir well. Serve immediately and garnish with green onions.
- Store the soup in the refrigerator up to 5 days or in the freezer up to 60 days.
Video
Notes
- Use an immersion blender to puree the soup a bit instead of transferring hot soup to a blender.
- Bring out more of the flavor in the seasonings by adding them to the aromatics at the beginning to toast them.
- Add a pinch of baking soda to your soup to help soften the split peas and make the soup creamier.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Megan,
I’m not the cook in the family, but the cook has an up coming surgery and I’ll be the replacement. I love store bought Split Pea soup, so I thought I’d give your recipe a try as I become the cook for her. I’ve read your online instructions and your comments and can’t seem to see where you mention how much water to start with. Your instructions start with, “heat a large pot and add the diced onions”. You say it makes 6 serving, but that doesn’t help me at the start since my servings are in the largest soup bowl I can find.
Hi Mike, I’m not sure what you mean about the water in step one. There is no water in this recipe. As for the servings, the recipe makes 6 servings which is about 1.5 to 2 cups of soup. If you want the exact serving size, then you would weigh the entire soup cooked on a food scale to get the total grams (weight of the soup) then divide by the number of servings (6). The number of grams per serving is equal to what one serving is.
What equals a serving..1 cup 2 cup? Sorry if I missed it.
There are 6 servings in the recipe. If you want the EXACT serving size, then you would weigh the entire soup cooked on a food scale in grams then divide by the number of servings (6). The number of grams per serving is equal to what one serving is. Measuring with cups is always inaccurate.
H Megan
I want to try this recipe for a friend, but she does not like things spicy. In your opinion should I omit the Cayenne all toghter? I don’t want to deviate from the original recipe too much that the flavor is not there.
I do not believe the cayenne pepper makes this recipe overly spicy by any means, but if you are concerned I would omit it.
Your recipe looks great! I am trying to lose weight, with success so far, and have found that a “serving” is negligible. So, what do you consider a serving? Since I am logging foods, calories, and serving size, that information is important to me! Thank you so much if you can designate a “serving size”.
Congrats on the weight loss!!! That’s amazing! As for the serving, there are 6 servings in this recipe so 1/6th is a serving. Eyeballing is what I recommend with my clients as our bodies are not perfect caloric calculators. If you need/want to be more specific, you will cook the recipe, weigh the entire finished product using a food scale then divide by 6 to get the amount in weight per serving.
SO SO SO GOOD! I would definitely recommend this to everyone.
Hi! How many cups per serving?
I divide mine into 6 meal prep bowls which is about 1 1/4 cup each.