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I really believe that anyone who wants to cook, can. I also find that many times when I say something is easy, no one believes me. But this soup really is easy, believe me!
Like in the recipe for panade, I'm explaining a procedure more than a recipe. This soup can be made with different vegetables and flavored in different ways. I'll give you a recipe, but there are lots of suggestions for substitutions at the end.
FRESH PEA SOUP FOR TWO PEOPLE
1/2 yellow onion, peeled and sliced thinly
1 clove garlic, peeled and sliced
1 T. olive oil
1 T. butter
4 cups fresh peas (the kind you shell yourself, but you can use the frozen ones if you want to)
chicken stock or vegetable stock or water
2 t. chopped fresh tarragon
Melt the butter with the olive oil in a medium-sized pot. When it's warm, put in the onions. Cook the onions slowly. (The best way to make sure that they cook slowly is to cover the pot and turn the heat down to the lowest setting. If you are the kind of person who tends to burn things, then you can add a tablespoon or so of water.) It should take about 10 or even 15 minutes if you are being really careful for the onions to get very soft. At this point, add the garlic and let it cook a minute or two longer.
Now add your peas, the tarragon, and enough liquid (chicken stock or otherwise) to just barely cover the peas. If you're using canned stock, just put in one small can and then make up the difference with water. Turn up the heat until the liquid just starts to boil, then turn it back down to low so that it simmers. Season with a little salt and let it cook until the peas are soft.
Let the soup cool and then blend it up in the blender. I learned the hard way that it is dangerous to blend hot liquids in the blender - it makes the top explode - so it's best just to let the soup cool. (I, of course, can never wait. If you're like me, only blend 3/4 cup at a time and pulse the motor on and off before letting it run.)
Pour the soup back into the pan and reheat it. Taste it - does it have enough salt? Do you want to add pepper now or only when you serve it? Is it too thick? Add a little water or stock. That's it - impress your friends!
SECRETS:
Cook the onions slowly, because that makes them sweet. Add the garlic after the onions are soft because garlic doesn't take as long to cook and can sometimes burn.
Add only enough liquid to just cover the vegetables. You can always put more liquid in, but it's hard to take it out.
Use any vegetable or herb you like. This is the way you make winter squash soup (with sage) and carrot soup (try mint or coriander) and tomato soup (with basil). You can make zucchini soup or corn soup or potato soup. Combine more than one vegetable, or leave out the herbs. This is a basic recipe that leads to many others.
This is an easy recipe to multiply. You can also increase or reduce the amounts of onion and garlic to suit your own taste.
If you like your soups to be rich, really go easy on the stock. Then when you are reheating the soup, thin it with cream instead of water. Many vegetable soups are delicious with cream. [That was an incredibly dry sentence. Let me be more firm and specific: Make yourself some puréed vegetable soup with cream. You will love it. Not something you would eat every day, perhaps, but totally and completely delicious.]
If you want a more hearty and filling soup, add a potato, sliced thinly. You may need to add a little more stock, becuse potatoes make the soup nice and thick.
Having a fancy dinner party? Then vegetable soup is all about the garnishes. Dollop each bowlful with a spoon of sour cream or crème fraîche or whipped cream with snipped herbs in it. Tiny little croutons are good. So are snipped chives or a few bits of whatever vegetable you made the soup out of - a few fresh peas, in this case, dropped into boiling salted water for a few minutes until they're just barely cooked.
STILL NEED HELP?
Please ask me any questions you have. I love to cook, and I love to help other people learn how!
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