Pea and Ham Soup

This is the simplest, tastiest soup you will ever learn to make! If you're a newbie to soup making I'd definitely start here, only five ingredients including the stock and virtually no chopping.

I first had pea & ham soup at a friend's house, standing in the garden, watching fireworks on a cold autumn night. I had no idea what kind of soup I was slurping from a mug, just that I loved it!

I was amazed when I asked my friend what it was, that not only was it pea(!) but that it was so simple to make. I was used to making lentil soup with lots of chopping and grating of veggies. Anyway, I thought it was about time I shared my version of this simple soup with the rest of the world.

You will need a blender of some sort to make this into a nice smooth soup, hand blender, food processor, smoothie maker etc. I like to add garlic, not too much, but feel it really brings out the flavour. You have a choice with the ham to either buy uncooked and boil it then use the water for the stock or, buy cooked and use ham stock cubes. If I have something else I want to use a larger piece of ham for I'll go for the uncooked then say use some for dinner and add the rest to the soup.

The recipe below will make around 6 portions, depending how large you serve them. I tend to eat some then divide it up into containers and freeze in single serving portions, this way I just take out however many I need depending how many are eating. I usually heat them straight from frozen my putting into a pot on the stove.

When the soup is cold it will thicken, so if heating from cold (and thawed if it's been frozen) let it heat up a bit and see how thick it really is before adding any extra water or stock if you want a thinner soup. Finally, in my recipe I use 900g as that the size of the bag of frozen peas I buy. If your bag of peas is more or less than this then you can adjust the amount of stock accordingly, rather than weigh out exactly 900 grams of peas. It's entirely up to you.

Recipe

Approx. 6 servings

• 20g butter or margarine

• 3 cloves garlic

• 900g frozen peas

• 1.3 litres ham stock (2.25 pints)

• approx. 300g cooked ham

Directions

1. Take the peas out of the freezer so they begin to thaw.

2. Melt the butter in a large soup pot.

3. Peel the garlic and roughly chop then stir into the melted butter in the pot, let it cook for a few minutes.

4. Add the peas and give a good stir so they get coated in the butter. Then add the stock.

5. Bring to a simmer and leave to cook for 20mins.

6. Once done remove from the heat and allow to cool, then blend until completely smooth.

7. Shred or chop the ham into bite sized chunks and add to the smooth soup.

8. To serve reheat until the ham is hot through or, store in the fridge (2-3 days) or freezer until needed.