With Christmas and New Year's behind us, I feel unbelievably full. I've eaten absolutely amazing food, Christmas biscuits and Stollen (a kind of Christmas cake with dried fruit and lots of icing sugar) and feel like I've eaten enough to last me a few weeks.
Looking ahead I just started a new job and I know I won't have the time to do much menu planning during the day. I'll also be going to lunch with my new colleagues to get to know them and will end up eating heavy restaurant meals.
So to help on both accounts (feeling full and not having any time) Greg and I came up with the Post Christmas Soup Week. For every evening this week we're going to eat soup, we'll alternate cooking it and we'll make sure the variety is there so we won't be tempted to whip up a solid dish.
When planning our menu, I decided to give the pea soup I'd messed up twice before another chance. I got the recipe from "Tiffany Goodall's First Flat Cookbook" which I - surprise - bought when I moved out from home and was afraid I'd end up eating pizza every night. I like the book a lot, it's full of caring advice for someone who's never really had to cook on a tight budget with limited time before. She gives good tips on what to do with the leftovers and has a way of making you feel taken care of without being patronising.
The first time I made her pea soup, it turned out very sweet and had me wondering if I'd mixed up salt and sugar but I'd followed the recipe to the t so the next time I made it, I decided to spice it up with tabasco and paprica but ended up ruining the taste so this time I went back to the recipe and just amped up the ingredients to my taste - and bingo! - I got it right :) The recipe asks you to blend it with an immersion blender but every time mine hit a large pea it blew soup up into the air and my kitchen ended up looking like the site of a Gremlin massacre so I blend with a normal blender.
So with no further ado, here's her recipe with a bit of my tweeking:
Spiced Pea and Mint Soup
adapted from Tiffany Goodall's First Flat Cookbook
including chopping, simmering and blending takes about 30 minutes, serves 2
including chopping, simmering and blending takes about 30 minutes, serves 2
| 25g | butter |
| 1 | large onion |
| 2 | cloves of garlic |
| 1,5 | green chilies |
| 400g | frozen peas |
| 600ml | vegetable stock |
| 8 | mint leaves |
| 2tbsp (15ml) | single cream |
| crème fraîche for serving |
Chop the onion and the green chilies finely and fry it in the butter on a medium heat. Once the onions have softened a bit (3-4mins) add the crushed garlic and the frozen peas and season with about a teaspoon of salt and a lot of freshly ground pepper. I use a mix of red, white and black pepper but use whatever you like best just make sure you use a fair amount of it as you need to give the naturally sweet peas a bit of a kick.
Add the mint leaves and the stock and bring to a boil. Leave it to simmer uncovered for about 15 minutes.
Blend until smooth (no need to tell you to be careful because it's hot soup) and mix in the cream.
Serve with a swirl of crème fraîche and garnish with some mint leaves before serving.
