Pea Soup

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A simple bowl of pea soup
A simple bowl of pea soup

It’s hard for my ego to accept, but there are certain things I can’t do in the kitchen (sorry to let you down loyal Scordo readers, but it’s true).  I count making soup and baking as two kitchen tricks I just can’t pull off.  Baking is an exact science with little room for ad-libbing and it just doesn’t fit with my cooking style and on the soup side of things I live with a soup master (viz., my wife).

If I attempt to make soup in my house it’s the equivalent of going out to play a set with Roger Federer; that is to say, most tennis players can move, hit a forehand, and get through a few sets, but at the end of the day most tennis players will lose to Federer.  And this is essentially how I feel about attempting to make soup in the Scordo household – I’m just going to lose or make an inferior soup if my wife is present.  In turn, here is my wife’s pear soup recipe:

A pot of pea soup

Pea Soup
 
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
 
Cook:
Serves: 4-6
Ingredients
  • 1 cup of dry peas (organic dry peas have better flavor and will improve your soup greatly)
  • 2 carrots chopped
  • 2 stalks of celery diced
  • 1 small onion diced
  • ½ large potato or 1 small potato chopped
  • 2 tablespoons of tomato paste
  • 4 cups of purified water
  • 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
Process
  1. Saute your veggies in the olive oil with a bit of Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper (until soft) and thereafter add the peas and water. Bring mixture to a boil and simmer for an hour. That's it, you're done.
  2. I like freshly grated cheese and some extra, freshly ground, black pepper in my pea soup. We had a crisp Sauvignon Blanc from the Marlborough region in New Zealand (still a bargain wine but getting more and more expensive) with our pea soup.
Notes
Please use kosher salt when it comes to cooking, the Iodized stuff is only good for salting pasta water. And on the pepper front, freshly ground is best.

 

8 Comments

  1. I hear you here. My wife is the soup master as well, but I can make a mean pasta fagioli!! Pea soup was a dish my Nonna made all the time, sometimes with diced ham, sometimes without. Great comfort food, especially on a crisp autumn day!

  2. Be sure to make large batches so you can freeze some of the soup. This will save you time and energy costs in the long run. 🙂

  3. Vin: Interesting post. Having discussed this with my mother, pea soup is about taste and texture. Suggestion for adding body: barley. The interpretations on how to make the soup are like lasagna, cheesecake, etc.

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