Artichoke - Split Pea Stew with Brown Rice (No Added Fat)

I was wondering what a simple lentil or split pea stew with artichokes might be like. This may come from a recent idea that I had, and still am looking forward to trying, of cooking big pieces of lemon into a dhal and making a Mediterranean-flavored lentil soup with plenty of lemon.

I thought that I'd let the artichokes cook instead of having them added at the end, to soften the artichoke and possibly partially dissolve the artichoke, marrying the flavor with the split pea base. Split peas cook in a 1:3 ratio to water over 6-10 minutes, and I cooked for the full 10m to soften the artichoke as much as possible. Here is what I did.


Ingredients

• 2 cups yellow (or green) split pea
• 6 cups water
• 12 ounces artichoke hearts, quartered (I used frozen)
• 2 cups leek, 1/2" from root end removed then leek cut into half lengthwise and carefully washed and sliced into 1/4" lengths (I used most of a small-medium leek)
• 2 cups chopped kale (I used frozen)
• Vegan bouillon cube
• 1t ground cumin
• 2t lemon juice
• 1/2 t (or to taste) salt
• 1/2 t garlic powder

Process

1. I put the split pea, water, artichoke hearts, leek, kale, bouillon cube, and cumin into my Instant Pot pressure cooker and cooked for 10m.
2. After the cooking was done, I waited a few minutes and gently released pressure, then mixed in the lemon juice, salt, and garlic powder.

I also made long-grained brown rice (1:2 ratio of rice to water, a bouillon cube, and the brown rice 50m program in my Zojirushi rice cooker).

 

Results

Dinner was very good! We all really liked the split pea and artichoke combination. I added just a bit more salt after serving to bring out the flavor of the main course better.

Ideas for the future

A little caper or chopped olive added at the end, as well as raw onion, would be welcome. I should have put ginger and garlic in when I started cooking. I should continue experimenting with cooking with artichoke. I wonder if a longer pressure cooking time would further soften and mingle the artichoke with other ingredients.