Pea, coriander and mint soup

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Print This Post

My goodness, what a mad mad week it’s been. I wanted to blog, I really did, but I was completely caught up in some work for my job. As in, didn’t go to bed until 1am, and then couldn’t get off to sleep for another half an hour. I was exhausted. All my hard work seems to have paid off though. The thing is, once you start ploughing all your efforts into one thing, everything else starts slipping. The washing basket was overflowing, my eyebrows started to resemble the black forest and my nails should definitely not have been seen by another human being! But today I had one of those really productive days where, due to Mr LTT having a migraine and being laid up in bed, I actually moved swiftly around the house to remedy all these situations AND managed to bleach the sinks and clean down the inside of the microwave which seemed to have got pretty grim! Achievement: unlocked.

Since I last blogged I’ve also watched two episodes of How To cook Like Heston. I first learned about Heston in 2006 when I watched In Search Of Perfection and consequently bought the book. To this day I always make his roast potatoes from that book. Last weekend we made his burgers from the programme as Mr LTT got a Kitchen Aid mincer (and sausage filler) attachment as a Christmas gift from Mummy LTT and this morning I made his boiled eggs. Do leave a comment and let me know what you think of his latest programme.

The diet so far…it’s going ok. I have avoided McDonalds for over two weeks (which is pretty much a miracle in my book!) and I’ve cut out a lot of carbs by eating salads at lunchtime in my beautiful Black & Blum box. Last week I swapped out salad for soup. Before Christmas I was eating a lot of the Yorkshire Provender pea, coriander and mint soup but it was quite high calorie due to having double cream in. I thought I’d have a go at making my own version without the double cream and I’d really pleased with how it came out. The pea flavours are a lot fresher in mine and I didn’t cook all the coriander, just finely chopped it and then added it in once I’d blended it. I also put some ground coriander in too.

For the soup I made my own chicken stock. It’s best to make it the day before and the put it in the fridge overnight once it’s cooled. That way all the fat rises to the top and solidifies, making it easy to scrape it off the top and take a few calories off the stock. Of course, you could use pre-made stock or vegetarian stock too if you wished. The stock was inspired by Jamie Oliver’s Get Ahead gravy but I wanted pure chicken flavours in the soup as I was adding coriander to the soup so I didn’t add any herbs.

Apart from the stock, there’s three other key ingredients… peas:

…coriander:

…and mint:

First we cut up some chicken wings and add to some roughly chopped onion and carrot, season, add a splash of oil and shake to mix it all up. Then we roast it in the oven for an hour.

Once it’s done, tear all the meat off the bones with a couple of forks and add 2 litres of water. Simmer for 30 minutes stirring from time to time. The mixture will go nice and dark.

Strain the stock through a sieve to remove all the meat, bones and veg and leave to cool. Once it’s cooled, pop it in the fridge overnight. Dispose of the solidified fat from the top when you’re ready to use it.

Make the stock up to 1.8 litres and add some more onion, half of the coriander, mint leaves, 2 teaspoons of ground coriander, a handful of peas and season. Cook for 15 minutes, then add the rest of the peas, bring back to the boil and cook for a further 5 minutes. This is the ugliest your soup will ever look!

Take the mixture and blend…then finely chop the rest of the coriander and stir in to the soup.

Serve with a garnish of coriander leaves

{Makes enough for about 8-9 servings}

40 minutes (plus 12 hours unattended in fridge overnight)

Ingredients

For the stock

• 8-10 chicken wings
• 1 large onion
• 2 carrots
• 1tbsp olive oil
• 2 lites of boiling water

For the soup

• 1.5kg of frozen peas
• 100g fresh coriander
• A good handful of fresh mint leaves (a fresh plant from the supermarket herb section is the amount I used)
• 1 onion
• 1½tsp ground coriander
• 2tsp table salt
• ½ tsp ground black pepper

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/Gas Mark 6.
2. Cut the chicken wings into pieces at the joints and cut some of the bones open if your knife is sharp enough. Roughly chop the onion and carrot and add all the ingredients to a roasting tin. Season with salt and pepper and splash with the olive oil. Give it a good toss to mix it all up. Roast for 1 hour, giving it another mix after 30 minutes.
3. Remove from the oven and tear the meat from the bones with a couple of forks. Add the boiling water and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4. Strain the stock through a sieve and leave to cool, then place in the fridge overnight. Skim the fat off the top.
5. Take 50g of the coriander (including stalks) and place in a large saucepan with the mint leaves. Roughly chop the onion and add that too.
6. Make up the stock to 1.8 litres and pour into the saucepan along with ground coriander and a handful of the peas. Season with the salt and pepper.
7. Bring to the boil and simmer for 15 minutes. Add the frozen peas and bring back up to the boil – this will take a little while! Simmer for a further 5 minutes.
8. Finely chop the rest of the coriander (including stalks).
9. Blend the soup mix until really smooth. If it’s too thick, add a little more water until you’re happy with the consistency. Put the mixture back in the saucepan and add in the chopped coriander and stir well.
10. Serve with a coriander leaf garnish on the top.

Categories: Savoury, Soups | Tags: coriander, mint, pea