Beyond Pea Soup

With a few simple ingredients including fresh peas, tapioca, butter, water, and salt and pepper to taste make a sumptuous soup in less than thirty minutes. The soup’s thick and smooth consistency is because of the tapioca while the butter gives it a rich and luxurious taste. You can enjoy the peas at its utmost flavor and freshness when its delicate sweetness stands out. For best results, use freshly shelled peas to make this recipe. This recipe is great to try when peas are in season. Otherwise, you can still make one of these soups recipes with frozen peas. Bake the peas out of the pod and wash them gently yet thoroughly by placing them in a colander and under cold running water before cooking the fresh peas.

Tapioca is a vegetable-based thickening agent. Instead of using flour or cornstarch to thicken the soup, you can use tapioca to make the dish turn pasty or taste floury. Tapioca adds a sumptuous texture and a neutral taste. Sold in flour form or in pearls, tapioca is also known as Manihot esculenta or dulcis. It is the starch of the tropical cassava root and is made by grating the fresh roots and allowed to dry and ferment. Then the grated roots are pressed and baked into a flat cake then powdered to make pure starch.

When the flour or starch is diluted in water or moistened, quickly heated tapioca is achieved. Quick-cooking tapioca thickens the soup excellently. But it will leave tiny gel-like particles suspended in the liquid. If you don’t like this appearance and texture, use tapioca flour to make the soup. You can process quick-cooking tapioca in the blender until it is reduced to a fine powder. Tapioca pearls derived from tapioca flour and are already cooked. They are often used for making desserts and bubble tea drinks.

Ingredients

300gms shelled peas

1 cup tapioca, washed

6 cups water

2 tablespoons butter

Seasonings to taste

1. Add all ingredients in a kettle and allow it to cook for 20-25 minutes. Keep stirring often. Cover it. Let it cook on medium flame.

2. Towards the end add the seasonings. Stir well. Then strain this mixture and serve hot in a soup bowl.

Spinach Pea Soup

Dried pea and spinach soup is an uber green and super nutritious dish that can be a part of healthy recipes. It is ideal for the health-conscious. Serve this as a warming and comforting appetizer. Or enjoy it with crusty bread for a very light dinner. In this healthy recipe, the peas and spinach are cooked then passed through a sieve for a thick and smooth consistency. This soup has a sumptuous texture in the palate and tastes spectacular. Its bright green color gives instant delight to the eyes and the senses.

Before cooking dried peas need to be soaked for at least eight hours in cold water. This can be done overnight so that the peas are all ready to cook the next day. Substantial amount of cooking time will be saved by soaking the peas before cooking. However, do not soak the peas for more than ten hours or germination may occur. This may change the flavor of the peas. Before cooking the peas, pick over them to remove any stone, dirt or debris. And also to remove any discolored peas or those with blemishes. So that you can inspect them carefully spread them out on a clean surface. Place the sorted peas in a colander then wash and rinse them well under cold running water.

The soaked dried peas when boiled will collapse into a puree making a fantastic soup that has a wonderful texture. The spinach also adds a thick texture to the soup aside from a greener color. If the peas are pureed and the spinach has disintegrated into the liquid you will know the soup is ready. To make sure that any solid parts are squished pass the contents of the soup through a sieve to puree it even more. To puree the whole soup you can also use an immersion blender.

Ingredients

5 cups dried peas (soaked overnight)

1cup chopped spinach

1 onion, peeled

3 cups water

Salt and pepper to taste

1. In a pot add all ingredients and allow it to cook for 20-25 minutes. Keep stirring often.

2. Cover. Let it simmer on medium flame.

3. Add salt and pepper to taste towards the end. Stir well.

4. Pass the mixture through a sieve. Then heat it once again. In a soup bowl serve it hot.