Green Pea Soup aka Clanger Soup

This is one of my daughters’ favourite lunches. It has the huge advantage that you can make it from scratch in about 20 minutes … which is about how long it takes to heat the oven and bake off some part-baked baguettes to go with it.

For this recipe I use my faithful Le Creuset casserole (size 24), but you could get away with a heavy-bottomed saucepan. If you do use a saucepan, keep an eye on it and stir it more frequently as things will tend to stick and burn more easily. You will also need either a blender or a hand-held whizzer to liquidise your soup.

Recipe: Green Pea Soup aka Clanger Soup

Summary: A quick and tasty hot lunch!

Ingredients

  • 1 medium onion, chopped
  • olive oil to fry
  • 2 pints Chicken or vegetable stock. (If I have stock in the freezer, I use it, but if not I use Kallo Organic Stock Cubes.)
  • 1 pint jug full of frozen peas
  • salt and pepper to season
  • chopped mint to serve (optional)

Instructions

  1. Start off by chopping your onion while the casserole warms up gently with about a tablespoon of olive oil in it. Resist the temptation to overheat the oil. You will just burn the onion and spoil the taste of the soup. You want it hot but definitely not smoking. The onion doesn’t have to be ever so fine, just reasonably small.
  2. Fry the onion gently over a low to medium heat for about 10 minutes, stirring every few minutes to keep the onion from burning. It is fine to have a bit of colour in the onion, but you really don’t want them catching on the bottom. I like them to be golden, soft and translucent.
  3. When the onions are ready, add the stock. Take care! The pan will be very hot and your stock may well bubble and spit as you add the first bit.
  4. When the stock has returned to the boil, pour in the jug of frozen peas.
  5. Return to the boil again, then cook the peas for about 4 minutes until tender but not soggy
  6. Turn off the heat and allow the soup to come off the boil for a couple of minutes. This makes it safer to whizz.
  7. Blend the soup until smooth. At this point it goes a beautiful green colour, which is why it became known as Clanger soup in our house!
  8. I add some freshly ground black pepper to season the soup, but I don’t add any salt if I have used stock cubes as they already contain plenty of salt. If you wish to use the mint, sprinkle it over the centre of each bowl for a decorative look.

Quick Notes

Serve with plenty of crusty bread for dipping.

Preparation time (duration): 5 mins

Cooking time (duration): 20 mins

Diet type: dairy free

Number of servings (yield): 6

Meal type: soup

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