This is super simple soup that takes advantage of seasonal fresh tastes from the garden.
Around the end of May, beginning of June, your broad bean plants continue to put on tender leaves and stems at the growing tip. Black fly come in and love the sugars. Avoid this by pinching out the tops. Don’t waste them but add them to your soup for a fresh pea-ish taste. Pinching out the tops also diverts energy to the maturing pods. Mint has run into rampantness.
Hodmedods offer organic, British-grown pulses and grains of great quality and taste. It’s good you can see who grew them and where, even if, in this case, you have no idea where the haulk Haulkerton is. But you can also find these very inexpensively in supermarkets. Protein and gut-good fibre.
Serve with new potatoes, a good bread or pearl barley.
Ingredients serves 4- 6
- 500g split green peas
- 2tbsp olive oil
- 500g carrots, diced
- bunch celery, diced
- handful of mint, roughly chopped I’ve also used rosemary, either from the garden or dried
- big handful broad bean growing shoots or substitute other leaves, say spinach
- salt and pepper to taste
Method
- cover the split green peas with an inch of water and bring to the boil for ten minutes then reduce to a gentle boil top up with boiling water from the kettle as they swell
- prepare your veg and sweat in the oil till softish
- tip in the peas, even if not yet cooked and continue cooking, topping up with hot water from the kettle to get the volume and consistency you want at least keep the contents covered by a centimetre
- when you see the peas begin to lose their outline, and one is squashable, add the mint and the broad bean/leaf tops
- add salt and pepper to taste