To start this one off though I would like to give you this little bit of a wonderful introduction. Well, it's not really an introduction as much as it is an awesome scene from one of my favorite movies of all time!
I was a little worried that I would not like this soup much at all. This is another recipe from Jamie Oliver, this time from his iPhone app. I followed this one pretty much line for line since I had never made pea soup before and I did not want to mess this one up.
This recipe for a quick and delicious pea soup served five of us pretty well. Here's the ingredients you need:
- 500g of frozen peas (which I believe worked out to about three cups)
- 2 large yukon gold potatoes
- 1 large white onion
- 1 litre of vegetable broth
- 2 sprigs of fresh mint
- 2 sticks of celery
- 1 knob of butter
- 100 ml of heavy cream
- 100g of feta cheese
- 1 fresh ciabatta bun
- salt and pepper to taste
- extra virgin olive oil
- Liquidizer or Immersion Blender
- Liquidizer or Immersion Blender
Instead of using soup bowls for this I thought it would be fun to use a half sized tea mug for eating the pea soup out of. You can use whatever you like, but get your oven on to the lowest temperature and put your bowls in there to warm up. Not very nice scooping soup into a cold bowl and having it go lukewarm right aways.
It's always nice to get the finicky things out of the way first, which I didn't do this time but I'm telling you this now hoping it will help you out.
First things first. Put a large deep pan on a lower heat, add a glug of olive oil and a knob of butter. Peel and chop your onion and celery sticks and add to the pan along with a bit of water once the butter has melted all the way. Let this cook with a lid on for around 10 minutes or until your veggies start to soften.
Grab another deep pot and add the vegetable broth and bring to a light simmer over medium heat. Next you want to peel your potatoes and grate them, adding them to the broth once you've finished. Now you can take one of the sprigs of mint and and add only the leaves to the broth.
Now for the topping! This topping is actually really tasty. I love it.
First grab a frying pan and turn it on high. The original recipe says to take the crust off the ready-to-bake ciabatta. All I could find was a freshly baked ciabatta bun. Tear off nickel sized pieces of ciabatta, including the crust if you want a bit of a crunch in the topping. Use all of the inside of the bun, but not all of the outside, even half a bun makes more than you need. Toss all the pieces in a bowl with a couple lugs of olive oil. Let all the pieces crisp up, tossing them with just the pan if you feel like getting fancy or just use a pair of tongs, which is what I did. Turn off the burner once they're all crisped and put the crisps into a medium sized bowl.
Once your veggies have softened, you can add your peas. Let your peas cook for about a minute. Now you can carefully pour your broth mixture in with the vegetables and peas, turn the heat up to medium high and bring to a boil. Next stir the cream and after five minutes on the burner, turn the heat off. Now is the fun part! If you have an immersion blender, just stick it in there and whiz it all up, make sure to salt and pepper your soup to your taste. If you don't have an immersion blender, I would hope you have a blender for smoothies or something. If you don't, I highly recommend buying an immersion blender just for the sake of soup. Great device to have in your kitchen.
Anyways, blend it all together really good. Grab your bowls out of your oven, or you can heat your bowls with hot water as well. Set up your kitchen table all fancy like and get ready to taste some awesome soup! As for the topping, mix in about 100g of feta cheese with the ciabatta crisps and throw a sprigs worth of torn up mint leaves in there as well, toss it all up and put a finger full on top of your delicious pea soup.
I actually loved this soup, one of my favorite things to make. Simple. Awesome flavour. Looks and smells great. Although if you don't fancy peas, then you probably won't like it. I guess you can't please everyone!
Oh! I almost forgot - Coming up next time...
Once your veggies have softened, you can add your peas. Let your peas cook for about a minute. Now you can carefully pour your broth mixture in with the vegetables and peas, turn the heat up to medium high and bring to a boil. Next stir the cream and after five minutes on the burner, turn the heat off. Now is the fun part! If you have an immersion blender, just stick it in there and whiz it all up, make sure to salt and pepper your soup to your taste. If you don't have an immersion blender, I would hope you have a blender for smoothies or something. If you don't, I highly recommend buying an immersion blender just for the sake of soup. Great device to have in your kitchen.
Anyways, blend it all together really good. Grab your bowls out of your oven, or you can heat your bowls with hot water as well. Set up your kitchen table all fancy like and get ready to taste some awesome soup! As for the topping, mix in about 100g of feta cheese with the ciabatta crisps and throw a sprigs worth of torn up mint leaves in there as well, toss it all up and put a finger full on top of your delicious pea soup.
I actually loved this soup, one of my favorite things to make. Simple. Awesome flavour. Looks and smells great. Although if you don't fancy peas, then you probably won't like it. I guess you can't please everyone!
Oh! I almost forgot - Coming up next time...
Enjoy!
