Creamy Pea and Lettuce Soup
- Savory
- Creamy
- Stovetop
- Oven
Sweet fresh peas and soft lettuce simmered with spring onions in chicken stock, then blended with a little cream for a light, silky green soup.
- Total
- 32 min
- Prep 10 · Cook 22
- Serves
- 4
- Difficulty
- Easy
You'll practice: Sweating · Simmering
Instructions
-
Trim and thinly slice the spring onions, keeping the green tops separate from the white parts. Separate the lettuce leaves, wash them and tear into rough 4 cm pieces.
~6 min
-
Melt the butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add the white spring onion slices and cook, stirring, until soft and translucent, about 4 minutes. Do not let them brown.
~4 min
Sweating gently softens the onions without browning, so their sweetness comes through and the soup keeps its clean green colour.
Sweating Cook the onions over medium heat with a pinch of salt until translucent, not browned. If they start to colour, lower the heat so the soup stays sweet and green.
-
Pour in 800 ml chicken stock and bring to a gentle simmer. Add the fresh peas and lettuce, season with the salt and black pepper, and simmer until the peas are tender, 8 to 10 minutes.
~10 min
A gentle simmer cooks the peas through without breaking them apart, and short cooking keeps the greens bright rather than dull and grey.
Simmering Keep the liquid at a lazy bubble, not a rolling boil, so the peas stay whole and the greens keep their colour. Stir now and then to stop anything catching.
-
While step 3 cooks
While the soup simmers, warm the cream gently in a small pan or leave it at room temperature so it does not split when added.
~2 min
Cold cream added to hot soup can shock the fat and make it split, so warming it first keeps the soup smooth.
-
Blend about half the soup with a blender until smooth, then stir it back into the pot for a partly chunky texture. Stir in 80 ml cream and the reserved green spring onion tops and heat through without boiling, 2 minutes. Taste and adjust the salt.
~2 min
Blending only half keeps some texture, and stirring the cream in off the boil stops it curdling or turning grainy.
Add the cream off the boil and stir rather than boil it, so the soup stays smooth instead of grainy.
Blend only half the soup: the unblended peas and lettuce give body and a fresher bite than a fully puréed pot.
Simmering Keep the liquid at a lazy bubble, not a rolling boil, so the peas stay whole and the greens keep their colour. Stir now and then to stop anything catching.
-
Ladle into warm bowls and finish with a crack of black pepper.
~2 min
