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Vegan Split Pea Soup is a healthy, low calorie soup recipe made vegetarian and gluten free with simple, wholesome ingredients. An easy, hearty bowl of comfort packed with veggies and flavor. Even meat eaters love this recipe!
Something I coach all my clients on is adding more veggies and plant-based foods to their meals and snacks. Surprise surprise!
The truth is vegetables are vitamins for the body and as we age and stop paying attention to the foods we eat, we start to feel low energy, have more hunger and cravings and just don't feel great overall. Lack of vegetables (aka fiber) is a big reason for that.
Most people know they need to eat more vegetables, but get stuck figuring out how to add them.
Soups are a great way to pack in a lot of vegetables and fiber especially during the winter and it can feel like true comfort food too!
This healthy split pea soup recipe is a great recipe for doing just that. Honestly, there are so many things I love about this recipe where do I begin?
Healthy Split Pea Soup
While I am definitely a meat eater, this Vegan Split Pea Soup is my FAVORITE soup recipe I've ever made. It's thick, creamy and made with simple, wholesome ingredients.
I promise even if you're a meat eater like me, you will love it! Here's a few more reasons why I love this recipe!
- Low Calorie - Each serving is 312 calories. That is considered low calories, but the most important part is that the macronutrients that make up these calories are BALANCED. This is always more important than the calorie number itself.
- High Protein - There's 18 grams of plant-based protein in this recipe. It's very difficult to get this much protein from plants, but this is one of the reasons why I love split peas. They have a TON of protein plus fiber. Such a powerhouse food!
- High Fiber - 20 grams of fiber per serving! Split peas are naturally high fiber and I talk about the importance of high fiber foods in this free class. It's so important for weight loss and hormone balancing. While there are 55 carbs in this recipe, the net carbs are actually only 35 because of all the fiber.
- Gluten Free - All ingredients are naturally gluten free.
- Low Fat - This recipe only has 3 grams of total fat per serving. One of my tricks for keeping fat in check is substituting broth which I do in this recipe.
Ingredients For Vegan Split Pea Soup
Here's what you need to make this meatless split pea soup! You will also need a blender and large pot to make this recipe.
- Onion
- Celery, Carrots
- Green & Red Bell Pepper
- Garlic
- Sweet Potato
- Split Peas
- Vegetable Broth, low sodium
- Oregano, Paprika, Cayenne Pepper, Bay Leaf
- Green Onion
How To Make Split Pea Soup Vegetarian
Here's the instructions for making vegetarian split pea soup. It's surprisingly simple to make and so worth it because every bite is phenomenal!
To start, heat a large pot and add the diced onion, celery, bell pepper and carrots to it with a splash of the broth. Cook a few minutes until the veggies begin to soften. Add the garlic and spices and cook another few minutes.
Next add the remaining broth, sweet potato, split peas and bay leaf. Cover and bring the pot to a boil. Once boiling, reduce to a simmer and simmer 45 minutes or until the split peas begin to soften.
Remove half the soup and place in a blender then pulse to puree. Add the pureed soup back into the pot. Serve immediately garnished with green onions.
If you did want to add ham or another protein source to this recipe, you can easily do that. Simple add the protein to the soup while it simmers for 45 minutes so that it warms with the soup!
Substitutions For Split Pea Soup
Here's the substitutions and additions you can make for this meatless split pea soup. Please remember that when you make substitutions, it will change the nutrition data you see below in the recipe card.
- Veggies - You can swap or omit any of the veggies in this recipe to your liking. The combination below really works well and makes the most flavorful recipe so just know that it you omit or swap any of the veggies that the flavor may not be the same.
- Protein - You can add ham or another protein to this recipe. Simply add the protein when you simmer the soup in step 3 for 45 minutes.
- Broth - Any broth or stock may be used. I always use low sodium.
- Spices - You can swap or omit any of the spices. Again, the combination I have in the recipe makes the best split pea soup flavor so if you change them I cannot guarantee the same results.
- Split Peas - If you don't have green split peas for split pea soup, you can use yellow split peas instead or lentils would be a good substitute. I love this lentil soup!
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
- 1/2 teaspoon Oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon Cayenne Pepper
- 1/4 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
- My Amazon shop has more products similar to those used for this recipe and that I recommend to my nutrition clients.
Nutrition
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.
Split pea soup has always been my favorite and this vegan version rocks. Thanks for coming up with this awesome recipe. I paired this with vegan hot dogs and it was a great combo. 🙂
Glad you liked it! One of my favs too.
Lovely recipe! If anyone misses the smoky flavour one gets from a ham bone/hock (I don't, particularly, but split peas are kind of sweet and the salty umami idea can compliment that), you can add a little smoked paprika, smoked sea salt, liquid smoke, or even a little sauce from a can of chipotles in adobo. A drizzle of red wine vinegar or fresh lemon juice is nice, or fresh mint if you like that kind of thing can brighten up the pot. Today is the first time I've worn a sweater in months. Perfect for making bread and soup.
This soup is easy to make, seriously tasty and easily adapted to whatever veg happens to be in the fridge, although like you, I lean to root vegetables for flavour and texture. I love the spices you've chosen! Have made this twice now and my retired husband loves it, especially as its winter in Sydney atm and we're in need of nutritious, vegetarian comfort food. I usually puree the lot with a hand blender as we like it best that way.
Congratulations Megan, this is a winner!
So glad you liked it and THANK YOU for taking the time to tell me! One of my personal favorites.
My friend cooked this soup and she brought some for me to try. Wow. What a delicious it is!!! Thank you for the recipe. I am going to make it either this weekend or next weekend. So delicious and so healthy 🙂
This is one of my absolute favorite soups. I'm so glad you liked it!
This looks so tasty and easy to make! I love budget friendly food! 🙂
I've been having a number of bad days lately - you're not alone!
Oh I'm sorry to hear that. This soup will certainly makes things better!