Thursday, July 19, 2012

Pea & Mint Soup

This is a classic British soup and preferbly made during fresh green pea season. Thanks to the frozen peas available year around the soup can be made anytime though its best with fresh peas. Naturally so after all the effort of sitting and shelling the pea pods and then making the soup, the soup has to taste divine. The advantage of this soup is you can serve it hot or cold depending on the seasons. I have tried out the classic soup recipe from the trusted BBC site and it turned out divine and perfect for rainy windy evenings.

Ingredients:
Peas: almost 1.5 cups fresh shelled or frozen + more for garnish

Scallions: 1 small bunch white parts preferably or 1/4 cup chopped
Potato: 1 medium sized or chopped 4-5 tbsp
Garlic: 1 small clove crushed/minced

Veg Stock: 1cup + as needed
Water: optional to be used along with stock: around 1/2 cup

Fresh Mint: 4 tbsp+/- chopped
Lemon Juice: 2-3 tsp
Caster Sugar: 1 big pinch

ButterMilk/Sour Cream: 1/2 cup + as needed for thickening

Garnish/Topping:
Mint Sprigs: optional though traditional
Shelled Peas: handful blanched for exactly 1 minute.

Preparation:
In a deep pan, bring to boil the scallions, potato garlic crushed and stock. You can even add water along with stock to reduce the stocky aftertaste. Reduce to a simmer and let it cooked slightly covered till the potatoes are done.

Add in shelled peas and continue cooking for 3-5 minutes only. 3 minutes for frozen peas and 5 minutes for fresh shelled so as not to lose their green colour and flavour.
Once the peas are done, stir in the chopped mint and lemon juice and caster sugar and remove from heat.

Let it cool for a few minutes and then blend to a fine puree in a blender. Add in salt, pepper and little buttermilk /sour cream as needed to adjust the thickness.

Serve warm/chilled  in bowl or shot glasses to make an appetizing starter. You can heat through the soup adding more buttermilk if needed incase you want it warm. Else chill till consumption time.



A simple fuss free soup which can be made earlier and a perfect starter.A chilled bowl definitely goes to NCR:Summer Soups at Lisa's.


2 Comments:

Priya Suresh said...

Green soup looks highly comforting.

Lisa Turner said...

Sounds like a perfect summer soup. Thanks for submitting to NCR this month.

Thanks for visiting my Blog

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