Pea soup

Peasoup with feta and mint

I have been posting a lot of soup recipes lately now haven’t I? Probably because a good soup is comforting, warming and – not unimportantly – it is also very quick to make. So I love trying out new soup recipes for lunch.

Especially now that the weather seems to go back into full wintermode again (I cannot believe it is snowing again, temperatures are roughly between 0 and -6 Celsius during the day.) I especially like a nice warm dish for lunch. I love salads too and there are many good wintersalads out there too, but today was a true soupday.

I guess also because my resolve to eat healthy, exercise and lose weight got a bit sidetracked lately. You know I am participating in the Ten weeks to healthy event but hmmm, I am not convinced that ten weeks are gonna be enough to get me healthy.. I have been baking too much lovely goodies lately and ok, I did give most of it away but still a good chocolate cake, lemon cake or even the nanaimo bars we made for the Daring Bakers are all fabulous and a little bit too fabulous to give it all away, so yes, I tasted. And tasted a bit more and ok, then a little bit more.. On top of that; somewhere down the line I didn’t get around to doing any sports this week, so double trouble almost… Haha… O well, never too late to start again right?

So in order to get myself back on track I figured a nice hearty lunch was a good start. I had recently downloaded a new app for my Ipod which is called 20 minute meals from Jamie Oliver, and if you’ve read this blog more often then you will know that I love Jamie! So I have picked a couple of recipes from this source and love most of them. On Monday we had a lovely szechuan stirfry and today this tasty peasoup. All of the meals take about 20 minutes to make so perfect for weekday meals.

Now on to the soup. You will need the following ingredients to make this:

PEA SOUP WITH FETA AND MINT (recipe for two people)

1 large potatoe

1 sprig of fresh mint

1 stick of celery

75 gr ready to bake ciabatta (or any other bread you have lying around)

30 gr feta cheese

250 gr frozen peas

1 small onion

1/2 liter of vegetable stock

50 ml double cream

seasalt, pepper, olive oil, butter and extra virgin olive oil

Preheat your oven to the lowest setting and place your soup bowls in the oven to warm. Put a large deep pan on a low heat. Add a splash of olive oil and the knob of butter and leave to melt. Meanwhile peel and chop the onion. Trim and chop the celery stick.

Stir the chopped veg into the pan with a splash of water. Cover with a lid and cook for 10 minutes, or until the vegetables start to soften. Meanwhile put your griddle pan on a medium heat and let it heat up. Heat the vegetable stock and bring it to a gentle simmer over a medium heat.

Peel the potatoe then roughly grate it onto your board./ Add to the pan of simmering stock.

Pick all of the leaves from the mint sprig. Discard the stallks. Add half of the leaves to the vegetable stock. Put the rest to one side for later.

Cut the crusts of the ciabatta and tear the bread into small bite-sized chunks. Toss these in a mixing bowl with a lug of olive oil. Add the bread to the hot griddle pan and let it toast on all sides, using tongs to turn it. Once crisp and golden turn the heat off.

Add the peas to the pan of softened vegetables, cook for 1 minute, then carefully pour the stock mixture into the pan and bring everything to the boil.

Stir the cream into the soup and cook for 5 minutes. Take the pan of the heat and whiz with the hand blender until smooth.

Taste your soup and season with a good pinch of salt and pepper. Cover the pan with a lid.

Tear your remaining mint leaves into the mixing bowl and add the toasted croutons. Crumble in the feta, drizzle with extra virgin olive oil then toss the whole lot together. Get your warm bowls out of the oven and ladle the soup into them. Sprinkle a handful of your crouton mixture over each bowl of soup. And enjoy!

I totally loved the feta in this dish and the warm croutons made a big difference too. As you can see in the photos I used wholewheat bread that I still had instead of ciabatta and I found that great with the soup.

All finished...

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• Pumpkin-celeriac soup
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• Applesoup
• Tagliatelle with saffron, bacon and peas

Tagged as: feta, peas, peasoup, recipe, Recipes, soup