Pea and Asparagus Soup
This is one of the simplest soup recipes and one that everyone I’ve made it for absolutely raves about! Sometimes the simplest recipes really are the best…and this one is truly, gloriously good (even if I do say so myself)!
| Preparation Time: | 5 mins |
| Cooking Time: | 10-15 mins |
| Serves: | 8 |
| Approx. calories per serving: | 140 |
Ingredients
- 2 big bunches of fresh asparagus spears (approx. 750g)
- 1 medium bag (900g) of frozen peas or petits pois
- Boiling water
- 2 x Stock cubes (I personally like using Knorr Chicken Stockpots – but that’s just my personal preference. Any chicken or, if feeding vegetarians, vegetable stock cubes will work)
- Salt, to taste
- Freshly ground nutmeg, to taste
- 40g Fresh butter
Method
Chop the asparagus spears into approximately 1cm lengths, but keep the pointy ends plus maybe one or two extra cuts’ worth separate to use later.
Melt 30g of butter in a medium/large stockpot, then add the bulk of the chopped asparagus (NOT the ends you’ve reserved on one side!) and turn the heat up. Add salt to taste and stir.
After about a minute or so, add the frozen peas, stir and grate in a sprinkling of fresh nutmeg.
Cover with boiling water (only to about 1cm above the solid ingredients).
Add stock cubes/pots.
Bring to the boil and boil until peas and asparagus are cooked (approx. 5 mins); the softer the peas, the smoother the soup, so this is down to personal preference how long you cook it for. Taste the stock during the cooking process and add either salt or another stock cube/pot (or part of one) if it requires more seasoning.
Turn the heat off and leave to cool for a few minutes, then process in a food blender (I find it easiest to use a hand blender you can simply place into the pan…if you use a jug-style blender while the soup is still hot, make sure you leave the centre opening in the lid OPEN and use a folded tea-towel to cover it, allowing steam to escape without the lid flying off!)
In a separate pan, fry off the asparagus tips you previously kept aside in the remaining butter and season with salt (to taste). They need to be cooked but still crunchy, so you only need to fry them off for 1-2 minutes.
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Stir the fried asparagus tips into the soup.
Serve & enjoy – Gloriously Good Food!
