Organic Pea Soup

Inexpensive Organic Sweet Pea Soup

This soup is made with organic frozen peas and organic stock.  I get both in bulk from Costco so it is very inexpensive.  The key is not to cook the peas very long – they then retain their sweetness.  Someone asked me once if the soup has sugar in it.  It doesn’t – it is all about how you cook the peas.  The base is inspired by the asparagus soup in the cookbook “The Silver Palate”.  This is one of my favorite cookbooks.

Ingredients:

-        2 quarts organic chicken stock or broth

-        4 cups of organic onion or leek.  I usually make it with 2 leeks and the rest onions (probably 1 large onion)

-        1 stick organic butter or ½ stick butter and ¼ cup organic olive oil.

-        8 ½ to 9 cups of organic (frozen) sweet peas

-        Sea salt to taste

Preparation:

Melt the butter with low heat in a large soup pan (e.g. 5 ½ quart pan).  Meanwhile, chop the leeks in half after disgarding the top and bottom and wash carefully. Just use the light green parts and discard the dark outer layers.  Dice the leeks and wash again in a colander.  Dice onions.  Add the onions and leeks to the butter and sweat the onions on low heat for a long, long time until they are really mushy and translucent (about ½ hour).  Salt them to taste. 

 

Onions and Leek - Cook until really soft and translucent.

Add 2 quarts of chicken stock and bring to a boil.

Add peas to the boiling stock and keep it on high heat until it begins to boil then let it boil for about 30 seconds and turn it off.  Let the soup cool and then process it (liquefy) in a blender or food processor that is watertight.  Let it cool or else the hot soup will make the lid pop and splatter everywhere.

If you would like fancier soup, add chopped tarragon to the top, or bacon, or a bit of cream swirled in the bowl.

This recipe makes a lot of soup – over 2 quarts… I think that you can make half as much, but I’ve never tried.

Finished soup -- to make it fancier add cream, or tarragon or bacon to the top.

Organic Pear Vinaigrette Dressing

A ripe pear, vinegar, oil, honey and salt = Pear Vineaigrette

Ingredients:

-        1/2 cup Organic vinegar ( I usually use either apple cider vinegar that is bottled with the mother or organic white vinegar that I buy by the gallon – very inexpensive).

-        1 small organic shallot (totally optional for this vinaigrette)

-        1 ripe organic pear, cut into quarters or small pieces

-        1 to 2 teaspoons organic honey or some kind of sweet substance – sugar, agave, etc. (Costco has organic honey)

-        1 teaspoon sea salt

-        1/2 cup organic vegetable oil like canola, sunflower, olive, etc. 

pear and vinegar ready to blend

Preparation:

I soak shallot in the vinegar first and then remove it before proceeding.  This is totally optional.  Combine vinegar, pear pieces, salt and honey in a blender/processor container.  I use a magic bullet.   Blend until the pear is liquefied. Add the oil and blend again. Shake before using and refrigerate after making.  I often make it without honey or any sweetener especially if the pear is really ripe.

Taste the vinaigrette and add more oil, sweet or salt if needed – blend or stir again.

Organic Celeriac Apple Salad

This is an unusual and excellent winter salad.  Except for grating the vegetables, it is very easy to make. 

 

Organic Celeriac Apple Salad

Ingredients:

-        1 medium to large organic celeriac root

-        3 organic apples (firm is better)

-        1/2 cup organic heavy cream

-        1 to 2 teaspoons organic Dijon style mustard.

-        1 teaspoon sea salt

-        2 tablespoons organic lemon juice (less than 1 lemon)

-        ½ - 1 cup organic walnuts (Costco carries organic walnuts now!!)

Preparation:

Peel the celeriac.  Peeling the apples can make the grating easier unless you have a really sharp grater. Grate the vegetables with a hand grater or a food processor.   I used our old Swiss grater.

Combine the cream with the mustard and mix.  Add the salt and lemon.   Mix together again and add to the grated vegetables.  Mix thoroughly and add the walnuts.

 

Peel the Celeriac

 

Grated Celeriac

My old grater... it mushed the apples but it still tasted good.

Apples ready to grate

Finished salad with celeriac, apples, cream, mustard, salt, lemon juice and walnuts.

Simple Organic Vinaigrette Dressing

Ingredients:

•       1/3 cup Organic vinegar ( I usually use Apple Cider Vinegar that is bottled with the mother) Most stores carry Bragg’s organic.
•       1 small organic shallot or 1 or 2 tablespoons finely chopped onion (Whole foods has organic shallots)
•    1 to 2 teaspoons organic Dijon style mustard.
•    1 teaspoon sea salt
•    2/3 cup organic vegetable oil like canola, sunflower, olive, etc. (lately I’ve been using olive oil from Costco, but remember it may get solid in the fridge). 

Preparation:

Put the vinegar in a glass container that you will use to store the vinaigrette.  Add the finely chopped shallots.  Sometimes I let this sit for a while so that the onion infuses into the vinegar.  Add salt and mustard.  Add oil.  Shake before using and refrigerate after making.

Additions:

For fancier vinaigrette you can add fine herbs to the dressing (it won’t last as long).  Some use chives, chervil, parsley, tarragon, etc.