Pea and fennel soup

This is a lovely soup, with the sweetness of leeks and peas, the fragrance of fennel, and the savouriness of garlic. I just love the vivid green of this soup, it really brightens my day!

Quick and easy to make, and reasonably cheap when in season (fennel is really cheap at the moment!) this is a fantastic go-to soup for weekday meals. Serve with crusty bread for optimal eating pleasure ;) 

Ingredients

1 fennel bulb, finely chopped
1/2 leek, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
750ml vegetable stock
500g frozen peas - fresh or frozen
1 bunch spinach, chopped.

Method

Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat, add fennel, leek and garlic, sauté until soft.
Add stock, peas, fennel, and spinach.
Bring to the boil, reduce heat and simmer until all the veg is cooked.
Purée until soft and smooth. 

Serve and enjoy!
 

Pea and lettuce

This is a Jamie Oliver dish and it is surprisingly yummy. I say surprisingly because I was not sure how cooked lettuce would taste. Turns out, it tastes mighty fine. Jamie's recipe called for gem lettuce (which I think is baby cos lettuce) - but all I had was iceberg and it worked nicely. Jamie has other versions of this approach on his site - ie braised peas with spring onion. I'm also thinking that when summer comes along doing this with fresh peas, and adding in some fresh greens from the garden would also be pretty cool - there could be endless tweaks to the flavour. Imagine this with lemony sorrell and some fish... mmm yum - there will be experimentations I am sure!

Ingredients

a knob of butter
1 tbs flour
300ml chicken stock
400gm peas and 1 tbs mint leaves OR a 400g bag of mint peas
3 handfuls of finely sliced lettuce

Method

put the butter, flour and stock in a pan and stir until it makes a bubbling golden sauce. Add in the peas, mint, and lettuce, and cook until the veggies are tender. If you see your sauce drying up reduce your heat and add a splash more stock.

Easy peasy!! (yes, I went there!)