Ignoring the fact that I haven't blogged for two and a half weeks and that I'm probably going to miss my bus by deciding to come back to it now (EDIT: I did), I've just made myself some pea soup for lunch and wanted to share it, because it's extremely good (and cheap. And very, very simple).
There are plenty of variations on the pea soup theme but this is how Frau Dietz likes to make it. If you're hoping to get rid of the 5kg you've put on since you arrived in Germany then it's in your best interests to garnish simply with a sprig of mint, however if you fancy something a bit more luxurious you should try stirring in some cream or adding a handful of parmesan. If you're a vegetarian or vegan then of course you can just subtract the pig meat and use vegetable stock instead of chicken: it'll be in no way less tasty, and it's even kinder on the wallet.
Ingredients (serves one Frau Dietz for a good two or three days):
* Frozen peas or petit pois - the smaller the sweeter: I used a whole 750g bag because it's all they had in the supermarket and we don't have a freezer
* Lots of garlic, peeled and crushed with the flat side of a knife. I used three very plump cloves: love it, but I don't want to kill anyone
* One white onion, finely chopped (a small one if you're making a small soup; a big one for lots. Which rather goes without saying, but you never know)
* About 100g of bacon (or some other pig product) in sort of very fat matchstick-sized pieces. I had half a packet of "Bacon streifen" left over that was about to pass its best before date, if it hadn't already done so, so I used that
* Chicken stock. You want to cover the peas with it but not end up with an extremely watery soup; I used 2 pints. I should of course encourage the use of homemade chicken stock but I used two stock cubes and am thus not in a position to preach.
Method:
* Heat a little olive oil over a medium heat in a large pan. Add the bacon, which will release some lovely fat for adding the onion to. It's quite possible one is supposed to add the onion first, I always get confused about that, but I didn't really have time to think about it and it worked very well like this
* Once the onion has begun to turn translucent and the bacon has some colour, add your crushed garlic. If you want a slightly more subtle garlic flavour then rather than putting it in fresh you could instead drizzle a little oil on some unpeeled cloves, wrap it in foil and roast it for 20 minutes before squeezing out the soft insides and adding it when you put the pea mix in the blender
* When everything looks soft and smells good, pour in all of the peas. I tend to stir them around a bit and let them heat through slightly before pouring in the stock, which should still be nice and hot
* Add lots of freshly ground pepper and salt to taste. Stock cubes tend to be very salty, and in fact I didn't need to add any salt to my soup today at all
* Bring to the boil and bubble for five minutes or so, then leave to cool
* Slowly pour the exciting green mess into your beautiful new Dualit blender (I may have mentioned my beautiful new Dualit blender previously; I shall certainly be mentioning it again). I did mine in two batches because there was so much to blend; half I whizzed round at top speed and the other half I gently pulsed, which meant that when I mixed it all together it became a lovely smooth soup with the odd rough morsel of pea or ham in
Two thirds of my pea soup went into a tupperware (how I wish we had a freezer); the other third went down my gullet. Cannot wait for lunch tomorrow...
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