Green Pea Soup

October 30, 2022

Green pea soup © kvalifood.com

Recipe with video - This lightly creamy and completely green soup, which is mostly stock, crème fraîche and blended peas, is not just unusually beautiful — it is also unusually good and easy to make. Here are two different ways to make it. Easy and deluxe.

This recipe serves 12. The soup can easily be made the day before, but wait to add the crème fraîche until just before serving.

Ingredients #1 (Easy with bouillon cubes and soy)

200ml (¾ cup + 1 tbsp) water
2 tbsp all-purpose flour
150ml (⅔ cup) heavy cream
4 tbsp chicken powder or 4 bouillon cubes
4 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp Asian fish sauce (optional)
350g (12 oz) frozen fine peas freshly ground pepper
1–2 tsp salt (add a little more if you skip the fish sauce, which is very salty)
250ml (1 cup) crème fraîche 38%

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5PAq5uW3GQ

Method 1 (As in the video)

Mix the water and flour in a pot. Stir well so there are no lumps.

Add the rest of the ingredients, except the crème fraîche.

Simmer for about 10 minutes.

If you are not serving the soup right away, let everything cool before blending. It is much easier to handle.

If you need to blend while hot, only fill the blender ¼ to ⅓ full. Blend until completely smooth.

It can now be stored or frozen until needed. But it can also be eaten right away.

When ready to serve, bring the soup to a boil with about 1.5 litres (6 cups) of water, depending on how strong you want it.

Once the soup has boiled, turn off the heat and stir in the crème fraîche until fully incorporated.

You can also choose to just add a dollop of crème fraîche to each bowl if you are portioning individually — as I do in the video.

Notes #1

The trick of making it this way is that you only add just enough liquid to cook the peas. That means less to blend. It is easier to blend and takes up less space in the fridge or freezer. You can even keep it in the fridge and mix a single portion at a time in a cup or bowl, so you can have soup every day for a week — if you feel like it.

Method #1 is actually the same recipe as method #2, but much easier since no stock is needed. It is also good to make well in advance if you want it as a starter at a dinner party. This is the version shown in the video.

Method #2 is the higher quality version and tastes best. But I have never had any complaints about method #1.

Ingredients #2 (The deluxe version with stock)

2 litres (8½ cups) light chicken stock
350g (12 oz) frozen fine peas
150ml (⅔ cup) heavy cream
2 tbsp all-purpose flour
250ml (1 cup) crème fraîche 38%
1 tbsp coarse salt freshly ground pepper

Method #2

Bring the chicken stock and peas to a boil in a pot. About 10 minutes.

Blend in a countertop blender until the peas are smooth. A stick blender will not chop them finely enough.

WARNING! Be careful not to fill the blender too full at a time. No more than ⅓ full. Hot soup expands because cold air is whipped in and then expands as it heats up. I have lost count of how many times I have decorated my kitchen walls with green! Fortunately I have not burned myself seriously yet. But it splashes so often that I have started straining the peas out, and filling the blender glass ⅓ full with peas just covered with stock. This gives a thicker cream that does not splash.

Make a thickener by whisking together ½ of the cream (about 75ml / ⅓ cup) with the flour.

Whisk in the rest of the cream a little at a time.

Stir the thickener into the soup and cook over low heat while stirring.

Add crème fraîche, salt and pepper.

Bring the soup back to a boil, stirring constantly.

Remember to taste and adjust.

Notes

If you are portioning the soup individually, it looks good with a dollop of crème fraîche in the middle.

Garnish with a little parsley and a few drops of good virgin oil. Rapeseed oil tastes particularly good with peas.

Serve with a good bread on the side.