Perfect summer soup – pea soup
10 August 2011 § 8 Comments
My pea crop in our vegetable garden has been very disappointing this summer. I can count on one hand the number of peas The Ladies™ have picked, whereas we’ve had buckets full of cherry tomatoes – they just keep on coming.
Last week we had an International Potluck. Argentina, Mexico, Israel, India, Morocco, England and Wales were present. Imagine the United Nations on watermelon mojitos – you get the picture. Everyone brought a dish from their homeland: we had sweet and spicy Moroccan chicken, Indian kebabs, marinated for twelve hours, Argentinian flan and chocolate covered dates.
My good English friend, Caroline, brought pea soup which reminded me so much of a quintessential British summer – dainty sandwiches on the lawn washed down with jugs of Pimm’s (very far from the riotous one they’re having now).
This Ina Garten pea soup was very refreshing, the mint cut through the sweetness of the peas. You could make it a bit more substantial by adding chopped boiled potatoes and a few whole peas. Serve with crunchy, garlicky croutons and crème fraîche.
How blasphemous would it be to use vegetable stock instead of chicken? I wonder if the sweetness would be too much. A mushroom stock would overpower it, I’d think.
It looks amazing – and I think I’d love it with some potato and/or whole peas. Thank you!
Thanks Mutterschwester – I often use vegetable stock instead of chicken – it would make it a bit lighter tasting than chicken stock. So maybe use a bit more mint and seasoning. I would not use beef though or mushroom as that would be over-powering – I know you would not use beef stock though!
This looks great! Can’t wait to try it. Also – in general – if you’re doubling a recipe, do you double the cook time? Thanks!
Jackie – depending on what you are cooking, definitely increase the time but not the temperature. Say you are doing a casserole increase by 15 minutes then check on it and keep going for as long as you think.
Love pea soup. You have the cutest bowls, plates and linens – we’re so boring around here with our whites.
Thanks – I was getting bored with my white ones, although food does look better on white plates.
Love your international potluck! Peas and mint are a perfect combination.
[…] you (unlike me) have plentiful peas, here’s a delicious pea and mint soup I made last […]