Eat The Yard

We have been saving snow peas for three or four weeks, dutifully blanching and freezing them until a combination of preserved peas and fresh-picked measured out to two cups.  We got there this past Sunday and made vegetarian split pea soup with our harvest.  Our friends Paul and Amy, who are always game for a good food experiment, helped shell the the 30 or so pods that made up the final, and fresh, bit of peas.  Then we cooked.  Then we ate.

The soup turned out excellent, made more so by the fact that this was our first meal where the primary ingredient came from the garden.  Every other edible from the yard has been either a side dish or a snack, but the peas were what the soup was all about.

Here’s the recipe (serves 4):

• 1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil (more to drizzle)
• 2 large onions, chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon of fine-grain sea salt
• 2 cups split green peas, rinsed
• 5 cups water
• juice of 1/2 a lemon (reserve the zest)
• a few pinches of smoked paprika
• a few small broccoli trees or a handful of spinach (optional)
• 1/2 cube of vegetable bouillon (optional)

Add olive oil to a big pot over medium-high heat.  Stir in onions and salt and cook until the onions soften, just a minute or two.  Add the split peas and water.  Bring to a boil, dial down the heat, and simmer for 20 minutes, or until the peas are cooked through (but still a touch al dente).  Using a large cup or ladle transfer half the soup to a blender and puree.  Return the blended soup to the pot and stir in (you should end up with a soup that is nicely textured — and green).  You may need to thin (water or stock) or thicken (flour) the soup to your preferred consistency at this point.  Do so just a little at a time.  Stir in the lemon juice and taste.  If the soup needs more salt, add more a little at a time.  Ladle into bowls or cups, and serve each drizzled with olive oil and topped with a good pinch of smoked paprika and a touch of lemon zest.

We used a whole cube of the bouillon, which was fine and didn’t overpower any of the other flavors.  Next time we will use more broccoli — we only had two small trees available from the garden, so that’s what we went with.  The onions were tasty and not as overpowering as they were being sliced (Amy, Paul, and Sarah took to switching off to get the job done), but next time we will use a half-onion less.  To get the consistency we want, we are going to try adding one large potato, and maybe even another half cup of peas, leaving a bit more to the un-blended portion for taste and texture (Sarah is opposed to this revision, but the super-majority in the house prevailed).

And, as a final note, watch the lemon zest (finely-grated lemon peel) — even a pinch can leave you eating lemon soup with peas, rather than pea soup with a hint of lemon.  We might do away with the zest after the next long harvest leads us to another two-and-a-half cups of peas from the yard.

Tags: recipes, regional eating, seasonal eating, winter crop