Please Defrost Me Pea and Mint Soup
You should remind me to make this again, sometime when it doesn’t also involve defrosting the freezer.
It is, of course, a variant of a classic soup – why even Mrs Beeton includes a pea and mint soup in her Book of Household Management, dating back to 1861. For stock, I actually used water saved from cooking chickpeas (I often reserve and freeze liquid in which I’ve boiled veg or beans as the basis for future soups and gravies).
You’ll need:
- oil for frying
- 1 small red onion, about 100g, finely chopped
- 1 celery stick, about 50g, finely sliced
- 1 large clove garlic, finely chopped
- 1 tsp grated fresh (or frozen) ginger
- 1 small-ish potato, about 150g, cut into roughly 1cm cubes
- about 600ml water or light veg stock (I used water saved from cooking chickpeas)
- 350g frozen peas (or fresh peas, shelled)
- 1 tsp salt or to taste (less if stock is well salted)
- 4 tblsp loosely packed chopped mint
You’ll also need:
- A blender or food processor for blending the soup – an immersion blender, if you have one, is the handiest.
The Steps:
- Place a large, heavy saucepan over a medium heat. When hot, add a couple of tblsp of oil to coat the bottom of the saucepan. Add the onion and celery. Stir and fry for about 5 to 7 minutes or until the onion has softened.
- Add the garlic and ginger. Stir and fry for about another minute.
- Add the potatoes. Stir to combine and add the stock or water.
- Bring to a boil and simmer for 15-20 minutes, until the potatoes are soft.
- Add the peas and bring back to a boil. Simmer until the peas are cooked through. This may only take a couple of minutes (I found that by the time the frozen peas had come back to the boil, they only needed about 2 minutes more). Add salt to taste.
- Add the mint, stir through. Remove from the heat and puree using a blender. Reheat gently if needed.
- Serve with a blob of yoghurt or sour cream and garnish with more mint if you like.
The Variations:
- You could raise the heat level of the soup by adding more ginger and/or some fresh green chili.
The Results:
- Soup for 3-4