When I came across this recipe for Pea Pod Soup in The Forgotten Skills of Cooking, I knew that I simply must try it. We love our garden fresh peas and yet I cringe to throw all of that waste into the compost pile. I’ve always wondered what would be a good way to use the pea pods left over from shelling.
If we could all fall in love with this soup then problem solved!
Thankfully, it was a very easy soup to make. (I’d be very interested to try making it with the soup function on my Blendtec mixer! No cooking would make it even easier to prepare!) I watched anxiously as each of my children, and especially my husband, sampled their soup and despite my poor straining of the strings, I saw them all make their way down to the bottom of their bowls.
Since our first harvest yielded three pounds of pods and the recipe for Pea Pod Soup only calls for one, my next challenge was to discover whether the soup froze well. The sample I reheated the next day seemed to have lost a touch of freshness, but nobody else could discern a difference. So when the next harvest day rolled around, I made enough and froze two quarts to enjoy this winter.
If you’re not a fan of eating soup without something to chew on (like me) it is delicious with croutons, a slice of your favorite sourdough bread, chopped nuts, or, of course, a generous sprinkling of bacon. But maybe I’m just weird. (In fact, it’s highly likely.)
So if you happen to find yourself with a pound of pea pods on your hands, I highly recommend giving this recipe for Pea Pod Soup a try.
Pea Pod Soup Recipe
Pea Pod Soup
Ingredients
- 1 pound freshly shelled pea pods, chopped
- 2 Tablespoons butter
- 1 onion, diced
- 5 cups chicken stock, warm
- salt, pepper, sugar to taste
- 2 sprigs mint
- 1/2 cup fresh or frozen peas
- crumbled bacon
Instructions
- Melt the butter in a small skillet and “sweat” the onions on low for about 5 minutes, until they are soft. Add them to the warm stock.
- Bring the stock to a boil.
- Add the pea pods & peas, seasoning with salt, pepper, and sugar as desired.
- Bring the stock to a boil for about 6-8 minutes.
- Toss in the mint and then run the soup through the blender until it’s smooth.
- Strain to remove the strings. (Running them through the berry screen of a food strainer works beautifully.)
- Garnish with bacon crumbles for a little something to bite.
Enjoy!
When you say “sweat them”, I’m assuming you mean the onions? Also, you say to add peas in the directions, but there are no peas listed in the ingredients. Can you clarify?
Yes Laurie, I do mean to sweat the onions… the peas are second to last in the list- ½ cup fresh or frozen & optional. I’ll update to clarify on the onions- thanks!!
Gotcha! I’m blind – or doing too many things at once. 😉 Love the idea of using the pea pods instead of tossing them.
Quinn,
Thanks for this recipe! I’ve added it to the Farm Fresh Feasts Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient, a resource for folks like me who love to eat from the farm share.
I appreciate your help in making this index better!
Thank you so much for sharing Kirsten!
I made this soup using and it was delicious-thank you for the recipe! I probably should have tasted it before adding the sugar, so next time…and there will be a next time… i will see if it is sweet enough without it. Thanks again.
So glad you liked it! Makes sense to add sugar after tasting since the sweetness of peas will vary depending on variety, etc.
been using a similar recipe for years, but will try your variation today, instead of using a blender and then sieving , if you pass the soup through a Mouli it will give a great texture and effectively sieve strings out in one fell swoop