Recipe For Cooking Split Pea, Lentil Or Bean Puree

1 pint of dried legumes. 3 tablespoonfuls of flour. 1 onion. Salt and pepper. 1/2 head of celery. 1/2 can of strained tomatoes, or 1 cup of cream if desired. A ham bone if at hand. 3 tablespoonfuls of butter.

Soak the legumes over night in cold water; wash, drain, and simmer in three pints of water, stirring often with a wooden spoon and adding more water as evaporation necessitates. If a ham bone be used, put on to cook at the same time as the legumes. When the vegetables are becoming tender, sauté the onion and celery, cut fine, in a little drippings and add to the soup; when all are tender, press through a purée sieve, reheat and stir in the butter and flour creamed together, or if cream or tomato be used, make into a sauce with the liquid and then add to the soup. Serve hot with croutons The flour may be omitted, if the settling of the pulp be thought unobjectionable.