Seasonal Recipe: Pea & Mint Soup

Lately I've been glutbusting by making some mangetout* and mint soup and I'm delighted The Guardian Gardening blog has published my delicious invented recipe today. Of course it'll work just as well if you have a glut of the usual kind of peas. My recipe also uses some of my new potatoes which got damaged whilst harvesting - and therefore need eating up pretty quickly - plus a nice large freshly harvested onion.

Don't worry if you haven't grown any peas, or you don't have a glut of them or indeed you don't have the potatoes or onion. I've also found a very simple recipe using store cupboard and freezer ingredients which means you can make this lovely soup pretty much whenever you want. I found it a while ago in A Celebration of Soup by Lindsey Bareham and it serves 6.

Ingredients
  • 900g/2lb frozen peas
  • 900ml/1.5 pints chicken stock or 1 chicken stock-cube and 570ml/1 pint water
  • 1 tsp concentrated mint sauce
  • salt and pepper
  • 275ml/0.5 pint single cream or milk or reconstituted milk
  • A pinch of sugar
Method
  1. Cook the peas in the stock or water plus cube, with the mint sauce and a pinch of salt and pepper for 10 minutes
  2. Allow the soup to cool slightly, then whizz through with a hand blender until the liquid's smooth
  3. Add the cream or milk and bring back to the boil
  4. Remove immediately, taste and adjust seasoning as necessary, adding a pinch of sugar if you like
  5. Serve with croutons, either hot or cold
* = the You Ask, We Answer team have alerted me to the fact that mangetout are called snow peas elsewhere. Hopefully the picture from my plot and a YAWA dictionary entry will help to clear up any confusion.

Comments

  1. Anonymous15 July 2009 at 03:31

    This sounds lovely -- peas and mint go so well together. Lovely for warm summer suppers!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hermes15 July 2009 at 07:07

    That sounds delicious and just right if the sun returns.

    ReplyDelete
  3. VP15 July 2009 at 11:49

    Nancy - we're just about to have some for lunch ;)

    Hermes - it's just right for today too :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Nutty Gnome15 July 2009 at 18:41

    Mmmh, that sounds scrummy! I'm just waiting for my peas to be ready for picking, then I'll be making this for our lunch - I'm getting hungry just thinking about it! :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. VP17 July 2009 at 09:30

    Nutty Gnome - hello again :) I hope they turned out well for your lunch!

    ReplyDelete

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