Total Pageviews

Friday, February 22, 2013

Cheating on Winter Pea Soup

This soup held a lot of promise, after all, cheating on winter sounds like a good idea at this time of year.  All those birds I've been hearing in the morning also sounds like 'cheating on winter'.  Maybe they want to cheat, too, and get started early on the construction of their spring homes.

I certainly loved the few ingredients:  onions, butter, chicken broth, peas, and romaine lettuce, along with salt/pepper, creme fraiche or sour cream and bacon bits. As promised by Dorie, I whipped this soup up in about 15 minutes.  My immersion blender seemed to be working hard to puree everything, and though I have my Vitamix in the corner of my kitchen, I chose to keep blending in the pan.  When I read about the pea skins remaining after this process (immersion vs. regular blending), I thought that maybe it wouldn't be a big deal. Especially after coming home from my hour long Jazzercise class (my replacement class for the one that no longer runs at work), and deciding dinner would be this soup and only 15 minutes cook time.  Jazzercise is a lot of fun; if you haven't tried it, it's an hour of fun dance moves guaranteed to get your heart rate up and sweat flowing!  But I love it.  I took it about 25 years ago (yes, it has been around that long!) and loved it.  So when I found a local class about 20 minutes away, I joined.  I am in my 4th week.  Not a class for faint of heart.  To my surprise and delight, there are many women my age (50+) and older, and younger, so it's a very mixed group.  I am happy to see mature ladies taking care of themselves and in such numbers!
So I wasn't worried about a few pea skins at around 8pm, when I decided to plate up the soup for Husband and me.  Son wouldn't eat this pea soup; he prefers the Chunky Pea Soup with Ham (it is good, I admit).
I loved the vibrant green color!  That in itself was 'cheating on winter'!

The flavor was decent though I thought some herbs would have brightened it even more.  And I did find the pea skins to be quite annoying.  If I make it again, it will have to be blended in the Vitamix blender.

Check out this and other great Dorie recipes at www.frenchfridayswithdorie.com


9 comments:

  1. Ah, yes, I can see where the pea skins might be annoying - but that vibrant color does go a long way towards soothing the winter blues!

    ReplyDelete
  2. The color of this soup was so lovely and we found it quite good! Have a great weekend, Kathleen!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Your soup looks great and I thought a few bits left in the soup provided nice texture:) I did Jazzercise eons ago and loved it. A few years ago I tried a studio nearby but did NOT enjoy it. At All! The instructor makes a huge difference and this one actually called me out for not doing the 'proper' moves! Glad you have a good instructor and are enjoying the class!

    ReplyDelete
  4. You managed to make a gorgeous soup despite the pea skins! Gym classes are all about the instructor I believe. This is a very good soup to have after that.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I think this was a little simple when it came to flavor. Some herbs would have been nice. Ah, well. It looks like a nice light meal, pea skins notwithstanding!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Bacon was all I needed to jazz it up! But I bet this soup would take to just about any herb on hand. Great job!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Yeah, I think pea skins would annoy me, too. I was thinking some herbs would have been nice...but I enjoyed this simple soup. Hope you're having an excellent weekend.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Gosh, I need some Jazzercise :) And funny you mention that since I don't think I have even heard that term in years. They probably even have classes nearby. After all these culinary adventures I should really look into them.This soup was a surprise hit in my home. My expectations were low since I am not a fan of peas. I will go for a thicker version next time and my guys definitely want a "next time". Dorie inspired me to play around with more soups as this was truly easy and tough for me to rationalize not having time to try. Apologize for the late comment- I had too much fun running around seeing the Barefoot Contessa and cooking and ended up with a miserable cold (but it was worth it).

    ReplyDelete
  9. I didn't mind having it a bit chunky the first time, but I put the leftovers through the blender and I enjoyed the smoother a little more, I think.

    ReplyDelete