I know I sound like a tool when I say this, but the summer is flying by, isn’t it? The next thing you know, we’re going to held tight in the death grip of another seemingly never-ending, soul-crippling snowstorm as we peer feebly reach back in our mind to try to recall a time when we weren’t chilled to the bone and literally going insane with cabin fever.
Oh, wait. We live in LA now. Never mind.
But good luck this go round, New York!
Now that I’ve succinctly burned all bridges back east, if are looking to dust off your warm-weather recipes while you can, we’ve got a new one you can add to the list. Katie came up with this one and it’s quickly become a staple around here for quick lunches and a nice dinner accompaniment you can prepare ahead of time for those steamy nights. Plus it’s super-easy to make and only take a few ingredients. Check it out.
Chilled Sweet Pea Soup
2 10 oz. bags of frozen peas (we usually use Cascadian Farm organic sweet peas, but you can use any nice frozen peas)
1 yellow onion, peeled + diced
3 cloves of garlic, smashed + peeled
olive oil
salt + pepper to taste
4 cups water
In a large stock pot, sauté the onion in a tablespoon or so of olive oil over medium heat until it becomes translucent (about five minutes). Add the garlic and cook for another two minutes, adding the peas once the garlic softens and becomes fragrant. Sauté all of that for about 10 minutes, stirring often and being careful not to burn the mixture, then add water and raise the heat to high to bring it to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and let simmer for 10 or so minutes to allow the flavors to mingle. Remove from heat and carefully use an immersion blender to blend the mixture into a puree. If you’re worried about splash-back feel free to let the soup cool first, but you should be good if you’re using a deep stockpot. Blend until smooth. If it’s too thick for your taste, add a cup or so of water and blend some more. Season with salt + pepper to taste and then simmer for a final 10 minutes.
If you’d prefer to have the soup warm, go for it. But we usually like to make this the day before and let it chill overnight. Then we usually serve topped with some chili pepper flakes. We recently gave it a go with some wasabi paste blended in though and mixed together a little olive oil and wasabi for a quick wasabi oil topper (pictured below), and that was great too, so feel free to get creative.
Enjoy!
And no hard feelings, New York. I’m sure this winter’ll be better than last. If not, come to sunny California!
