Pea soup is one of those fresh, vibrant soups that gives you a real feeling of happiness on a sunny day.
Fresh peas are lovely to use, the only problem is that you will need an lot of peas in order to make a little soup. If you have a few little helpers around the house to pod the peas, go for it! Otherwise use frozen peas, which in my opinion, is in of the only raw vegetables that freezes perfectly.
This soup can be made with ham stock, that gives it great depth of flavour. Boil some ham hock for 4 hours and leave cool in the stock. Just be aware that the stock will be salty so don’t add any salt until the end. You could also drop flakes of the cooked ham into the soup bowls for extra texture.
Serves 4-5
Ingredients:
50g butter
2 small white onions, peeled and sliced
1 clove garlic, peeled and sliced
2 sprigs of thyme
2 small potatoes, peeled and sliced
Sea salt & black pepper
1 litre of boiling water
650g frozen peas
Method:
In a large saucepan, melt the butter and gently fry the onions, garlic and thyme for 2 minutes without colouring. Add the sliced potato, a good pinch of sea salt and a twist of black pepper and fry gently for a further 5 minutes while stirring. Add the boiling water to the pot and simmer until the potatoes are soft, this should take around 8 minutes. At this stage you’re going to add frozen peas which will cool your liquid down, so turn the heat to maximum and add the peas. The peas should just be covered with the liquid, add more water if necessary and cook for 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and blitz with an immersion blender. If you want a super smooth soup, you could blitz the soup in a blender, but this could be dangerous using hot liquid so be careful!
Serve with a drizzle of olive oil or some mint crème fraiche and sourdough bread. I found a beautiful 30% rye sourdough loaf from the Alternative Bread Company in the English Market in Cork.
Relish 