Pea and Potato Soup!

I dont know about you, but December (like most people) was a very indulgent month for me!  Alot of us resolve to eat healthily in January; to be honest… I am finding it rather difficult to adjust from mindless gluttony, to nutritious gastronomy.  I am not a fan of diets.  I love good, hearty food and if I weren’t going through a major slump at the gym right now, I would be able to enjoy my good, hearty food guilt free.  As it stands, my laziness has cost me a few culinary sacrifices… only until I feel sufficiently traumatised into getting my bum back on that rowing machine, of course!

The only way that I’m able to make sure I eat more healthily, is to plan ahead.  It was my first day back in the office today (from the festive holidays), so I wanted to have something comforting for lunch, to combat the chaos around me.  For me, the ultimate comfort food is a nice, warming soup.

(Thats right… I am at the office before sunrise… how shocking is that?!)
I have never tried making my own pea soup before, but I saw a lovely idea by Good Food, for “Pea and Pesto Soup with Fish Finger Croutons”.

To say I have adapted this recipe would be a bit of an understatement, as mines is so utterly different!  I adapted/transformed mines to be more healthy; but still felt it important to honour my influence for the soup.  So here is what I done:

Ingredients:

3 cloves of garlic (crushed)
2 medium onions (diced)
5-6 good sized potatoes (diced)
1 litre of stock
2 bay leaves
700g Frozen Peas
500ml semi skimmed milk

Fry the onions and garlic in a little olive oil.  When the onions become translucent (around 10 mins on a medium heat), chuck in the potatoes, add the stock, then the bay leaves.  Give it all a good stir.  Cover and simmer, until the potatoes are cooked through (around 20 mins works for me personally).  Next, pour in the frozen peas, bring back to the boil, then simmer for 4-5 minutes.  Add the milk and warm through, as well as more water if you feel it is too thick (I added about another 200ml of water at this point, but it’s all about preference).

Blend until the soup reaches a smooth consistency and a luscious green colour!

A few points about this soup.  I took one of my tubs into work today with me, which I really enjoyed with a slice of wholemeal bread and olive spread (hee hee that rhymed).  In an attempt to keep the soup healthy, I didn’t season it nearly as much as I normally would’ve done.  Lesson learned for me; my advice is for you to season it really well.

Also… I’m not enough of a foodie (quite yet) to be snobbish about the use of stock cubes.  I’d love to be able to leisurely make and freeze my own stock, however, until that day arrives, stock cubes will do for me!  For this occasion, I used 2 vegetable stock cubes and 1 ham.  Next time I make it, I am definately going to use a lovely joint of gammon or something.  Mmmm.

Here is my little tubs, all set for the freezer.  The big one at the top is going to be used as a pasta sauce, with breaded fish chunks and pesto… funnily enough!  

(The ultimate freezer friendly soup!  Perfect if you have a microwave in your work kitchen)