Looking for a quick and easy answer to dinner? Our English pea soup looks like spring… fresh, light green, and sweet. The secret is in the blanching. Blanching and shocking lock in the vibrant green color giving the soup its appealing color (no drab olive green here!)
Garden Pea Soup
Yield: 4 servings
Delicious on it’s own as a cold starter to a meal. Serve hot in a larger bowl and you have a light dinner with your favorite artisan bread and a salad.
INGREDIENTS:
- 2 pounds English peas, shelled (2 cups) and blanched*
- 1-1/2 cups vegetable stock
- zest of one lemon
- 1 tablespoon almond butter (optional)*
- 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
- 1 tablespoon mint chiffonade for garnish
PREPARATION:
Pulse the peas, stock, zest, and almond butter in a blender until smooth. With the blender running, pour in the olive oil through the hole in the top. Pour oil in a steady stream until blended. Season with salt and pepper and refrigerate. Serve soup cold or heat soup over low heat just until hot (can be done in the microwave.) Garnish with mint and serve.
* Cook’s Notes:
English peas, aka garden peas, aka shelling peas, are best eaten soon after picking. For optimum results, purchase peas no more than 2-3 days before you plan to cook them as they start to loose their tenderness and sweetness quickly as their sugars turn to starch leaving you with bland starchy peas. If you can’t find peas at the Farmer’s market you can substitute organic frozen peas (not quite as good, but pretty darn good in a pinch — shhhhhhh, don’t tell anyone I told you.)
Oh, and what’s with the almond butter? We’ve added a little almond butter to enhance the sweetness in the peas, add a subtle nuttiness, and up the protein. If you don’t have it, don’t like it, don’t add it!
Remember, when working with our recipes on the blog, simply hit the blue hyperlinks in the recipe to see the associated technique video. It’s our way of guiding you through the recipe. Alternatively, you can view our Vimeo Portfolio, where all of the pea-related videos are bundled: http://vimeopro.com/dearmartini/peas-please
Dear Martini 
Memories of shelling peas for my mother. It’s a shame we seem to have become so lazy in these things, me included. This looks fantastic! I love these sort of fresh seasonal things kind of makes me feel alive if you know what I mean. The almond butter is interesting, I never would have thought of that. I’ll be looking out for fresh peas in town today. I’ll let you know how I get on!
Thanks Mike! Funny, I’d forgotten how much I used to love sitting on the back porch with my sister and my cousins shelling peas and shucking corn. Our uncle Jerry had the most incredible vegetable garden. We never thought it was a chore, it was just something we did to help prepare dinner.