Green Pea Soup Recipe
A simple Indian-spiced green pea soup. You make a garlic ginger paste, then use it as the base of the soup along with some onion. Some green chile contributes some kick, along with other spices.
I wish I could tell you I made today's pea soup with fresh spring peas. I didn't. It was made with peas found in the back left-hand corner of my freezer. And, even so, it was good. I'm sure it would be exponentially good with fresh market peas. Here's how it works. You make an Indian-inspired garlic ginger paste, then use it as the base of the soup along with some onion. There's also some green chiles in there to contribute some kick, along with a couple other spices. The ingredient list is based on one from this book, but I went off-road beyond that, and turned it into a one-pot soup.
I held off writing about this until I was fairly confident it was a sure thing. And now that I'm sitting here amongst towers of boxes, I think it is safe to say...we're moving. Just up the street though! Nothing too dramatic. But yeah, it's a move. And let me tell you, I don't love moving. I've been happy to avoid doing it for seven? eight? years. But the prospect of a proper guest room, a bit more space to work, and extra, extra tall ceilings - all just a hop and skip from where we currently live (and love) - was too much to pass up. So, in addition to wrapping Champagne flutes one by one - and boxing up tights, toothbrushes, and tart pans - cleaning out the freezer was on my hit list. And that's where today's pea soup comes into play.
There are many things coming with me in the move. And many things that aren't :). I thought I'd share some pics of a few things I've come across that have made the cut. Up top, I love this antique cookie press that I purchased a while back at Heritage in Napa. And below that are some snapshots of my family, and my grandma's copy of The Joy of Cooking.
And Heather, this is a note for you - those little spoons up above were Metne's. It's hard to see, but they all have M, for Metlar, on them. I think they must have been part of her wedding silver? I wonder if mom is hiding the rest of the M's somewhere? And then below those are some H's and a small menagerie of cookie cutters.
I'm looking forward to doing some shooting in the new apartment soon - the light there is stunning - although it will be the first time I'll be shooting from a place where I suspect the morning light will trump late afternoon. Fingers crossed.
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Green Pea Soup Recipe
I had my heart set on topping this soup with little cubes of pan-fried paneer cheese. That said, paneer can be hard to come by, and I didn't have time for an extra stop at another store. I ended up making the cheese "croutons" from queso fresco instead - not as authentic, but still tasty! This soup can easily be made vegan by omitting the paneer, and using sunflower oil in place of the ghee.
3 tablespoons fresh ginger, well chopped
10 sm-med cloves garlic, smashed and peeled
2 serrano chiles, stemmed and chopped
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin, plus more to serve
3 tablespoons ghee or sunflower oil
2 bay leaves
1 medium onion, chopped
4 1/2 cups good-tasting vegetable stock or water
3 1/2 cups / 500 g / 18 oz shelled fresh or frozen peas
1 teaspoon sea salt, or to taste
a squeeze of fresh lemon juice
8 fresh mint leaves, sliveredpan-fried paneed, queso fresco, or haloumi, cut into tiny cubes - optional
Use a food processor or hand blender {in a deep bowl) to puree the ginger, garlic, chiles, cumin and three tablespoons of water into a paste. You could also use a mortar and pestle. Set aside.
Place a large saucepan over medium-high heat and add the ghee. When hot, add the bay leaves and saute for 30 seconds. Stir in the onion and cook for a few minutes, until it begins to take on a bit of color. At this point, stir in the garlic-ginger paste, and cook for another minute. Carefully add the stock, stir well, and bring to a boil. Then add the peas. Simmer just until the peas are bright, and cooked through - just a couple minutes.
Remove from heat, fish out the bay leaves, add the salt, and puree well with a hand blender. Taste, and add more salt if needed. Also, if you need to thin out the soup at all, you can add more stock at this point. Serve hot topped with a bit of lemon juice, a pinch of cumin, mint leaves, and pan-fried paneer or cheese.
Serves 4 - 6.
Prep time: 7 minutes - Cook time: 10 minutes
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You always have a nice recipe to read on. Your baking gadgets and teaspoons are so quaint & elegant. :)
Hello Heidi, I just came across your blog a few days ago, and I've been trawling through it making potential weekly meal plans! This is just so amazing, and your choices just hit straight home, and it's like a collection of my dream food! The photography is also outstanding, and makes everything look intoxicatingly good! We've already picked 1 dish to try a day for next week, and I feel more excited about cooking than I have in forever! Thank You for having this blog, and I'll make sure everyone I know gets to know about it too! Best Regards Karoline in London
That looks gorgeous. I love the color! And all the spices and seasonings sound wonderful. Good luck with your move!
Even though I'm not moving, I've been cleaning out my office and looking at old silver, pictures of my childhood, and cookbooks my mother used. It's surprising at how far I've gone from the cooking I grew up with. So, I've been cooking the southern dishes I grew up with for the last few days...indulging in the nostalgia.
Thanks for the awesome recipe !! Indian Cuisine
hi heidi congratulations on the move! that pea soup looks delicious. i just picked up a book that i love called Anjum's Eat Right for Your Body Type: The Super-Healthy Detox Diet Inspired by Ayurveda It has a recipe for spicy corn soup that I just made a huge batch of for the restaurant i work at and it was sooooo delicious. can you do some recipes with corn soon? :) good luck on the move!! love always amy in toronto
Hey Heidi! I am about to move too. Yikes, frightening stuff. But, like you said, the pros outweigh the cons. The soup looks delicious! Thanks for the inspiration. I will need it when I'm making Franken-recipes from whatever I have left in my fridge, freezer and pantry. Great work! C
This soup sounds amazing. It's so vivid and gorgeous! Beautiful dish. Good luck with the move!
Oh this looks fantastic (though it's a bit to warm in NYC right now for soup...). I bet this would work well with lentils too!
Oh Heidi - we just moved last week (from Santa Fe back to Santa Barbara) so I know what you are going through! It's great to unpack, have a newly organized pantry and a fresh start in a new location. Hope the move goes well and enjoy the new place, it sounds great!
Moving is always such a traumatic experience and so exhausting, yet it is also the beginning of a new adventure and so exciting...even if you are moving just one block away. When we last moved (three blocks from our last place), I was surprised to discover a whole new world. I guess the fact that the two apartments were separated by a large street made the two areas two very different "villages" inside a city!
i needed a good english pea recipe. i thought the fresh ones i got from the market would go bad so i froze them all anyway!
How exciting! I love a good move because you get to go through stuff and donate/throw away things you don't need. If y'all need any help, let me know :) Pea soup with the first mint sprigs from the garden is already on the rotation around here, but I love your idea to include Indian spices! Yum! Happy packing :)
thanks for sharing a beautiful soup recipe. best of luck with the move!
I'm also in clean-out mode, preparing for a move. I don't have any frozen peas, but I think the base of the soup would work with some pureed squash I found!
this looks delicious! love the color. good luck with your move!
This is funny to me, because last week I saw someone eating green pea soup at a restaurant here in Florida and this was the first encounter I had seen in a awhile. Just seems like people dont eat it as much here. I'm guilty of sticking to the basic French Onion and tomato bisque, but will give this a shot!
congratulations on the new place, and good luck with your move! ... and, yum.
Looks awesome! I just figured out how to make paneer (which is so ridiculously easy, I'm kicking myself for not learning sooner) - this soup is a great excuse to make some more. That, and it is near fresh pea season here... yum!
Ooh! Looks amazing. I love pea soup. Perfect for fresh peas available in the markets now!! Thanks again for great ideas, inspiration and beautiful photos!
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