Creamy Green Pea Soup

As I've probably Internet-documented too well, I love peas. I'm a pea-liever. I've come close to tears over spilled peas. On Thursday night, I had a bowl of peas for dessert. I'm going to pretend that makes me an adult.

When I sit down with a bowl of peas, I'm quite methodical about it. I don't shovel them into my mouth willy-nilly, oh heavens no! I start with the bigger ones--good, but with a tendency to run a little starchy. By the end of the bowl I'm left with the petitest of the petite--silky sweet and bright green all the way through--I just love the way they pop when you bite down. (I feel like I'm revealing WAY too much about myself right now. You're my therapist now, blog.)

One of the most memorable meals I've had in Cincinnati was all due to perfect, ridiculously flavorful peas. Mantra on the Hill in Mt. Adams is kind of a fancypants Indian restaurant. Logan and I walked up the hill on a lovely Sunday evening for a perfect date night, which was made even better by delicious food. Everything we had was delightful, but this one cauliflower and pea dish? It was a revelation. The peas were among the freshest I've had, and were infused with a huge amount of savory spice while still tasting wholly pea-erfect. I immediately made Logan try just one pea, and he was pretty blown away too. We've since sounded a little...off...on numerous occasions as we give friends recommendations to go there completely based around one vegetable in one dish. I guess we're just two peas in a pod (UGH GROSS I'M SORRY I'LL STOP).

Okay, I feel like I was supposed to be talking about soup at some point. Erin and I were talking last night about our shared love of peas, and it hit me that while I've had plenty of split pea soup in my time, I've never made a fresh (er, frozen) pea soup. Would it be possible to make my precious bowl of peas even better through the power of soup? DOUBT IT. But that's no reason not to try. Besides, a lot of my favorite soups are those that focus on the flavor of a vegetable and then, you know, fatten it up. And this soup has cream, sooooo...

Logan surprised me a while back with the Cooks Illustrated Cookbook, and while this is only the second recipe I've tried from it, it's a great one to just sit and read (if you're into that sorta thing). Each recipe includes a bit of the reasoning behind while it's written, and by reading it I've become a bit more thoughtful with the dishes I've come up with lately. Reading books like this and others has made me a little bolder when using recipes, too; for instance, the recipe version of this requested that I put the peas in the food processor prior to adding them to the soup, and I was like no way, bro-sé. Redundancy? BAM. MACHETE.

So, this soup: It's pretty easy to describe, as it really does taste exactly how it sounds. It isn't going to replace my late-night cravings for a big bowl of peas, but I don't remember the last time I ate something so quickly. I know I should take my time and appreciate every bite, but after a long day of snow and Excel, this bright bowl of green was just what I needed. I practically did a Popeye-with-a-can-of-spinach impression.

Bonus confession: I licked my bowl. Peas be with you, y'all.

Creamy Green Pea Soup

Adapted to be lazier and vegetarian from The Cooks Illustrated Cookbook
Makes 2 big bowls or 4 small ones

GET THIS STUFF

2 T unsalted butter
1 small leek, white and light green parts only, finely chopped and rinsed well
1 T flour
2 c vegetable broth
12 oz frozen peas
8 leaves Bibb lettuce
1/4 c heavy cream  

Also, you'll need an immersion blender, blender, or food processor; and a fine mesh strainer. 

DO THIS WITH IT

Take peas out of freezer right before you start cooking, so they'll be partially defrosted. Reserve a few peas (say, 20) for garnish.
Melt the butter over medium-low heat in your soup pot.
Add leeks, cover, and cook for 8-10 minutes or until leeks are softened.
Add flour and stir constantly for about 30 seconds until combined.
Add broth, peas and lettuce, turn heat up to medium-high and cover for about 3 minutes.
Turn heat back down to medium-low, remove lid and simmer for another 3 minutes.
Remove from heat and puree until smooth using an immersion blender/blender/food processor (I prefer the ease of an immersion blender).
Strain soup into a bowl using a fine mesh strainer, then return it to soup pot.
Place pot back on low heat, add cream, and heat until warmed all the way through.
Garnish with butter croutons (below (obvs)) and a few reserved peas (they'll be fully defrosted by now and don't really need to be cooked, but they add a few bites of fun textural surprise and they look adorable).

Garnish: Butter Croutons (yum, right?)

Do you have some bread just sitting around? Cool, you can use it! I used three slices of baguette, some butter and s&p, and did this with it:

Preheat oven to 350 F.
Cut the crusts off your bread slices.
Cut the crustless slices into cubes, and put them on a baking sheet.
Melt a little butter (1/2 T was good for the amount I made) and drizzle it over.
Sprinkle with salt and pepper and toss the cubes around a bit.
Cook in a single layer for 10 minutes, flipping half-way through if you want to (just to get a nice golden color on both sides if you want, but not totally necessary).