Spring Pea and Mint Soup

We hadn’t been married long.  I said that I was making pea soup for dinner.  Jim made a face.

He got flashbacks of the thick split pea and ham soup of his youth.  Not his favourite!!  I personally find that soup a little rich if not made correctly, so I rarely make it anyway.  So he was pleasantly surprised when this is the soup that he was served!  These days he compliments the aroma, and licks the bowl clean!

Simple Spring Freshness

Yes, this soup is easily made all year round with a bag or two of frozen sweet peas in the freezer.  But I always seem to pull it out when the spring peas hit the market.  Shelling peas will always remind me of my childhood, sitting in a chair with a bowl, shelling peas for my mum.  It took more peas and work than necessary, since I had to sample from each pod that I opened!  Now, if you don’t want to go through the bother and work of shelling 6 cups of peas for this soup, I get it!  I’ll be honest, my soup ends up being a combo of fresh shelled peas, and frozen peas.  And these days, you can even find freshly shelled peas in a bag at the fresh produce section of the market, as opposed to the frozen bags in the freezer section.

The other addition that makes this sing Spring, is copious amounts of fresh mint.  Mint and peas just love each other.  And don’t be shy with the mint. The final flavour is just amazing.  

What Else Can You Add?

The soup starts off with shallots, leek or onion and garlic, the aromatics of the soup. And the final seasonings are a simple salt and white pepper. Sure, this can just be a celebration of peas.  But if you have some broccoli, romanesco, celery, or even zucchini in the fridge that needs to be used up, go ahead and replace some of the peas with this. You will want to keep in mind that different veggies need longer cooking time.  Peas cook up relatively quickly, especially if you are using them from frozen.  So if you are using fresh veggies, but frozen peas, add the chopped alternate vegetables into the pot a few minutes before adding the peas.

How to Keep the Vivid Green

What you need to keep in mind to maintain that bright fresh green, is that too long of cooking time is your enemy in this case.  You really want to only bring the stock to an initial boil, but then simmer everything at medium heat, and only the length of time needed.  Even the initial sweating of the onion, garlic and shallots should only be done at medium.  You want them softened, not browned at all. Once the soup is cooked, only put the lid on after it has cooled down. Trapping the heat inside will also change the colour. Afterwards, if you want to reheat the soup, don’t use a lid, and do it on medium to medium high heat.  It may take a few minutes longer, but you will avoid the dreaded grey soup.  As soon as it is warmed, removed from the heat.

Final Thoughts

Garnish with some chopped fresh mint, pea shoots, even a dollop of creme fraiche, sour cream, greek yogurt, or coconut yogurt to keep things vegan!  Serve it with some warm biscuits and butter.  My Pesto and Cheddar Biscuits are amazing with this soup, just saying! I should know, that’s what we had last night!  Make it year round to remind you of Spring.

Love Jen

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Spring Pea and Mint Soup

It takes only minutes to whip up this light but filling springtime soup. Simple ingredients with a delicious and fresh result.

Course Soup

Cuisine North American

Keyword mint, pea shoots, shallots, spring peas, spring soup

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Servings 4

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp butter or olive oil
• 4 shallots chopped
• 1 leek trimmed and chopped, (this can be replaced with an onion if you don't have a leek on hand)
• 2 cloves garlic chopped
• 4 cups vegetable or chicken stock
• 6 cups of peas fresh or frozen, divided
• 1/2 cup packed mint leaves
• kosher salt
• white pepper
• pea shoots for garnish
• mint leaves for garnish
• yogurt or sour cream for garnish

Instructions

1. Heat the butter or oil in a stock pot over medium heat. Add the shallots, leek and garlic and sweat till softened. Don't let them start to brown.
2. Add 2 cups of the stock and bring it to a boil over medium high heat. As soon as the stock is bubbling, add 5 cups of the peas. Reduce the heat to medium and cook the peas. If they are fresh peas, this may take 8-10 minutes, depending on their size. If you are using frozen peas it will only take 2-3 minutes.
3. Add the remaining stock and the mint leaves. Take off the heat. Using either an immersion blender or a stand blender, whiz the soup till smooth. If using a stand blender, you may need to do this in batches. Cover the lid with a towel as the heat from the soup may escape.
4. Return the soup to the pot, and add the remaining cup of peas. Warm the soup over medium heat till the peas are just softened. Taste and season with salt and pepper.
5. Ladle into serving bowls and garnish with a few pea shoot sprigs and chopped mint. Dollop some yogurt, sour cream or even creme fraiche if you want.

Recipe Notes

If you want to replace 1 or 2 cups of the peas with another green vegetable like broccoli, romanesco, celery, or even zucchini, add these 6 minutes before adding the frozen peas, or at the same time as the fresh peas.
Use a coconut yogurt for garnish if you want to keep this meal vegan.

When re-warming from the fridge, it may have thickened, feel free to add a bit of water to thin it out if you want. For other re-warming tips, see the blog post