Chilled Pea Soup With Frozen Mint Malt Vinegar Food

EASY PEA & MINT SOUP

Steps:

• Tip the frozen peas into a blender and pour over the hot water from a kettle. Leave the peas to defrost, then reserve 1 tbsp peas. Add a handful mint and the vegetable bouillon powder to the rest. Blitz until smooth, then chill. Serve, drizzled with cream and scattered with some chopped mint and the reserved peas.

CHILLED PEA-MINT SOUP

Steps:

• In a medium saucepan, bring the buttermilk to a simmer and add 4 cups of peas and a large pinch of salt. Simmer for 1 to 2 minutes over medium heat, stirring often so that the buttermilk does not boil over. The peas should not be fully cooked and still have a slight bite to them.
• Transfer the peas and liquid immediately to a blender with the mint leaves and, starting on low speed, carefully blend (holding the lid on firmly with a dishcloth), working up to high speed for 60 seconds.
• In order to preserve the vibrant color and flavor of the peas, the soup must be cooled immediately. Pass through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl, then rest the bowl inside a larger bowl full of ice water. Stir continuously until cool, tasting occasionally; you will notice that the soup becomes sweeter as it cools. Adjust seasoning with salt and black pepper. Refrigerate until cold.
• To serve, ladle soup into bowls and top with fresh peas and freshly ground black pepper.

CHILLED FRESH PEA AND BUTTERMILK SOUP

Steps:

• Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add leek, and cook until softened, about4 minutes. Stir in potato and dry vermouth, and reduce slightly, about 2 minutes. Add chicken stock and water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer until potatoes are tender, 7 to 8 minutes.
• Bring to a boil. Add peas. Cover, and cook just untilpeas are tender and bright green, about 2 minutes. Filling a blender halfway and covering with a kitchentowel, puree soup in batches. Strain through a coarse sieve into a large bowl; discard solids. Stir in buttermilk, and season with salt and pepper. Chill soup for at least 3 hours or up to overnight.Garnish each serving with pea tendrils if desired.

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.