Summer Garden Greens Soup

Yesterday we had lunch at my favorite restaurant in town, you order your food at the counter and then they bring everything out to you. You can sit inside or outside and every window has an amazing view of the river flowing into the ocean.The food is always fresh with daily surprises from her garden.  I ordered the soup of the day which was served with a crusty piece of french bread. The broth was lemony with fresh dill and chick peas (which I suspect were really yellow split peas)with the fresh vegetables. It was light, the broth was perfect and the vegetables were almost sweet. This is my take on that wonderful soup, the dill in my garden has been long gone so I used lemon thyme instead.

Ingredients:

1/2 onion (minced)
2 celery stalks
1 large lemon juiced
6 cups chicken stock
1/2 cup yellow split peas
2 whole garlic cloves
8 sprigs fresh thyme (tied together with kitchen string)
2 small zucchini
2 large handfuls green beans
2 large handfuls chard (cut in inch ribbons)
1 sm corn Cobb (corn cut from Cobb)
1 pinch red pepper flakes
Salt and pepper to taste

To prepare:

Saute onion about 5 min then add the celery. Cook 10 more minutes, add yellow split peas, stir and cook another minute or so. Add a good pinch of salt and pepper, then a small pinch of red pepper flakes. Add chicken stock, lemon juice, whole garlic cloves and sprigs of thyme. Cook about 20 minutes then add green beans and chard, cook another 5 minutes, then add in corn and zucchini. Cook 10 minutes. Then remove garlic and thyme sprigs, serve and Enjoy!

*This is wonderful with some warm crusty bread, rub with garlic after removing from oven for added flavor.