Green Pea Soup

We received our first snow of the season over the weekend and I couldn't have been happier. I love winter and everything about it: the cold and crisp days, the snow, which makes everything seem so beautiful, the pretty landscapes, the holidays, the Christmas music played on the radio, and of course, the drink of the season, hot chocolate- winter’s the best! Having lived in Buffalo, NY for many years, both H and I really miss the long snowy winters we experienced there after moving here.

Christmas has got to be the time of the year that I like the most. I put up my Christmas tree yesterday. The tree with its faux snow-dusted branches, tiny lights and pretty decorations stands in a corner of my living room casting a warm and festive glow all over the place.

This soup, something I made a few days back, is perfect for warming your insides on a cold winter day.




The soup is wonderfully rich, even though it does not make use of any cream, and takes less than 30 minutes to make from start to finish. This is an Ellie Krieger recipe with a few of my modifications.

Ingredients:
(For approximately 3 servings)
1 Tbsp olive oil
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
A pinch of red pepper flakes
½ onion, sliced
2 cups peas (I used frozen)
¼ - ½ tsp freshly grated nutmeg
Salt
Pepper
Lemon juice
Yogurt (for serving)

Method:
In a large saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the garlic, red pepper flakes and onion. Cook, stirring occasionally, until softened. Add the peas, salt, pepper and nutmeg and cook just until the peas are defrosted. Add 1 cup of water (or more as required) and bring to a boil.

Puree the soup until smooth. (I use my handheld immersion blender and blend it in the saucepan itself.) Simmer for a couple of minutes. Turn off the heat.

Squeeze some lemon juice into the soup. Mix. Ladle into bowls. Stir the yogurt so that it is smooth and top each serving with a nice dollop of yogurt.