Meet the Green Goddess of Soups – Pea Soup

When it starts to get a little cold, when someone doesn’t feel so great or when I just want a taste of something homey – I turn to soup; and in this case it is Pea Soup!

This soup without a doubt is one of the popular ones in our home. It looks beautiful and it tastes AMAZING and I just love how it makes the whole house smell so cozy.

All in one pot – soups are relatively easy to make and pretty hard to mess up. My pea soup recipe is straight forward and it gives me the opportunity to reveal a trick or two about making soups in general… Go get your soup pot and stick with me – this one will help all your future soup makings.

You will need:

2 tbsp. Olive Oil

1 small Onion

2 stalks of Celery

1 medium Carrot

2 cloves of Garlic

5 cups of Frozen Peas

4 leaves of Mint

1 tsp. Black Pepper

1 tsp. Turmeric

2 tsp. Salt

4½ cups cold Water

¼ cup Heavy Cream

You will also need:

A hand stick blender

(It is by far the easiest and the cleanest way to blend the soup, but of course a blender or a food processor will work just fine)

Let’s get to work:

If you know me, you know I’m not into playing any games; so, right at the beginning here is trick number one: these three are taste builders for any good soup. They’ve been called “The Holy Trinity” of soups or in French “Mirepoix”, and I call them: “Soup Starters”.

Chop your three musketeers 🙂  onion, celery and carrot to small and equal pieces, it will allow them to cook evenly.

Start by having your pot with the olive oil on medium heat and add the chopped onions. Allow the onions to sweat for couple of minutes before adding the other two musketeers.

Time to add the celery and carrot. Let them soften for a few minutes.

Meanwhile, mince the garlic cloves and add to the pot once the “soup starters” are soft.

You are building your soup taste as we speak …

Mix the vegetables together and cook for another minute or two on low to medium heat.

Add the frozen peas and mix them in.

Time for the spices…

Add the spices to the pot and mix together.

Add water to cover all the vegetables well and increase the heat to high.

Soups that are being cooked for a while need a little something fresh to lift up their taste just a bit. Take a look at my beautiful fresh grown mint…

I LOVE mint! and I got myself enough here for the soup and perhaps also a cup of tea later 🙂

I find that the mint flavor works perfectly with the pea flavor of this soup. If you don’t have it or if you are looking for a similar effect – use basil leaves. Chop the mint leaves. You may roll them together for an easy chopping job.

Add to the pot.

Cover the pot and bring your soup to a boil, allow it to boil for 5 minutes.

Still covered reduce the heat to low and maintain a lively simmer. Cook for about 20 minutes.

Time to uncover the pot and get the stick blender.

Place it in the center of the pot, lifting it just a bit above the bottom surface of the pot and blend the soup carefully moving the stick around to achieve a unified and smooth texture.

Turn the heat completely off and while the pot is still very hot, add the heavy cream and mix it in.

Pea soup is READY!

You may serve it with a little cream and mint leaves. If you like black pepper, you may add freshly ground black pepper on top. You may also enjoy it with home made croutons or mini soup nuts…

Excuse me for one second, I’m taking a little break…

Enjoy…

—————————————————————————
Quick Recipe:

Pea Soup-

Chop Onion, Celery and Carrot to small and equal pieces.

Start with the Onions in the Olive Oil on medium heat for a minute or two.

Add Celery and Carrots and cook until soft.

Add minced Garlic and cook for another minute.

Add Frozen Peas and Spices and mix well.

Add chopped Mint leaves

Add cold Water and bring to a boil allow boiling for 5 minutes.

Cover the pot.

Lower heat and cook for additional 20 minutes keeping the soup simmering.

Using a hand blender stick, blend to a smooth soup.

Turn of heat and add Heavy Cream mixing it in.