Aunt Cathys Pea Soup Food

FRESH PEA SOUP

Steps:

• Heat the butter in a large saucepan, add the leeks and onion, and cook over medium-low heat for 5 to 10 minutes, until the onion is tender. Add the chicken stock, increase the heat to high, and bring to a boil. Add the peas and cook for 3 to 5 minutes, until the peas are tender. (Frozen peas will take only 3 minutes.) Off the heat, add the mint, salt, and pepper.
• *Puree the soup in batches: place 1 cup of soup in a blender, place the lid on top, and puree on low speed. With the blender still running, open the venthole in the lid and slowly add more soup until the blender is three-quarters full. Pour the soup into a large bowl and repeat until all the soup is pureed. Whisk in the creme fraiche and chives and taste for seasoning. Serve hot with garlic croutons.

SNERT (SPLIT PEA SOUP)

Steps:

• Place dried split peas, ham hock, and bacon into slow cooker; pour in chicken broth and 3 1/2 cups water.
• Cover cooker and cook on High until peas are tender and broken apart, 3 to 4 hours. Stir in more water as needed to prevent soup from burning on the bottom. Stir occasionally throughout cooking.
• Stir potatoes, carrots, leek, onion, celery, and garlic into soup; mix in more water, if needed. Cover and cook soup on High for 2 more hours.
• Season with salt, black pepper, thyme, nutmeg, and cloves; mix sausage slices into soup. Cover and cook 2 more hours to blend the flavors.

AUNT CATHY'S PEA SOUP

Steps:

• Boil ham bone for 1 hour, remove bone. Add soup mix. When dissolved add everything else and cook on low until peas are completely desolved. For thicker soup leave to cook down, for thinner soup add more water. Salt, pepper, garlic, to taste.

PEA & MINT SOUP

Steps:

• Put the spring onions into a large pan with the potato, garlic and stock. Bring to the boil, turn down the heat and simmer for 15 minutes or until the potato is very soft. For the garnish, blanch 3 tbsp of the shelled peas in boiling water for 2-3 minutes, drain, put in a bowl of cold water and set aside. Add the remaining peas to the soup base and simmer for 5 minutes - no longer, or you will lose the lovely fresh flavour of the peas.
• Stir in the mint, sugar and lemon or lime juice, cool slightly then pour into a food processor or liquidiser and whizz until as smooth as you like. Stir in half the buttermilk or soured cream, taste and season with salt and pepper.
• To serve the soup cold, cool quickly, then chill - you may need to add more stock to the soup before serving as it will thicken as it cools. To serve hot, return the soup to the rinsed-out pan and reheat without boiling (to prevent the buttermilk or soured cream from curdling).
• Serve the soup in bowls, garnished with the remaining buttermilk and the drained peas.

CATHY'S KALE SOUP

Steps:

• Brown sausage and mince. Drain well.
• Add stock, spices & milk. Bring to a slow boil.
• Add potatoes & kale. Simmer together until the potatoes are tender (2 hours or so).

SNERT (SPLIT PEA SOUP)

Steps:

• Place dried split peas, ham hock, and bacon into slow cooker; pour in chicken broth and 3 1/2 cups water.
• Cover cooker and cook on High until peas are tender and broken apart, 3 to 4 hours. Stir in more water as needed to prevent soup from burning on the bottom. Stir occasionally throughout cooking.
• Stir potatoes, carrots, leek, onion, celery, and garlic into soup; mix in more water, if needed. Cover and cook soup on High for 2 more hours.
• Season with salt, black pepper, thyme, nutmeg, and cloves; mix sausage slices into soup. Cover and cook 2 more hours to blend the flavors.

CREAM OF CASHEW PEA SOUP

Steps:

• Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium-low. Add onions, celery, and garlic and cook, stirring often and adding a splash or so of water if the bottom of pan gets too brown, until golden brown, 30-40 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Add cashews, sugar, red pepper flakes, and 3 cups water and bring mixture to a simmer. Cook until vegetables are very soft and losing their structure, 10-15 minutes.
• Blend one-third of sugar snap peas with one-third of vegetable mixture in a blender, adding some cooking liquid from vegetable mixture as needed to thin, until very smooth, about 2 minutes. Press purée through a fine-mesh sieve into a medium saucepan; discard solids. Working in 2 batches, repeat with remaining peas and vegetable mixture, adding water as needed if you run out of cooking liquid. If soup is still very thick, thin with water until you get a velvety, pourable consistency. (You should have about 7 cups soup.)
• Stir vinegar into soup; season with more salt and pepper and warm over medium-low until heated through.
• Serve soup topped with scallions and potato chips.
• Do Ahead
• Soup can be made 2 days ahead. Let cool; cover and chill. Reheat over medium-low, thinning with water as needed until pourable.

MINTED SWEET PEA AND SPINACH SOUP

Steps:

• Melt the butter in a pot.
• Add the chopped onions, cover, and cook over low heat until tender and lightly colored, about 25 minutes.
• Meanwhile, drain the spinach and squeeze out excess liquid.
• Pour the stock into the pot, stir in the peas and spinach, and bring to a boil.
• Reduce heat and simmer, partially covered, until peas are tender, about 20 minutes.
• Pull the mint leaves from their stems; there should be 2 cups loosely packed leaves.
• Rinse thoroughly and pat dry.
• When peas are tender, add mint to the pot, cover, and simmer for another 5 minutes.
• Pour the soup through a strainer, reserving liquid, and transfer the solids to the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade, or use a food mill fitted with the medium disc (or just use the handy dandy blender).
• Add 1 cup of the cooking stock and process until smooth.
• Return pureed soup to the pot.
• Add the heavy cream and additional cooking liquid, aboout 1 cup, until the soup is of the desired consistency.
• Season to taste with salt and pepper, simmer briefly to heat through, and serve immediately.