Pea, Lettuce and Mint Soup

So you know how when you are hungry, a nice tin of soup is always lurking in the back of the cupboard?  And how tinned soup is one of the greatest things ever?  But what happens if you have possibly a few more mintues to spare and feel like whipping up a home-made soup?

But oh no!  You don't have any ingredients... shock horror.  Well, fear not - this soup (which is really healthy as well, for those of you on a diet)  doesn't have any exotic ingredients, and it can be thrown together with that solitary carrot and half a lettuce thats slowly going brown at the back of the fridge, and some frozen peas that are encrusted with ice in the freezer.

And lo-and-behold, look how lovely it looks!  How wonderful that colour is! And It's made of peas... another pea-based soup.  The best thing about pea recipes is that frozen peas are just as good as fresh ones, in my opinion.  Plus, they are pretty cheap, and keep for a while.  After all, we all have a bag lurking somewhere in the bottom of the freezer, and what better way to use them than in a soup, rather than just sticking them rather forlornly on the edge of the plate?

This recipe is a light and summery soup, as opposed to the pea and bacon soup, which to me seems much more of a hearty winter soup


Ingredients
500g frozen peas
1 onion
4 cloves of garlic
A sprig of rosemary
1 carrot
1 leek
2 Romaine Lettuce
50g butter
30g fresh mint

The method
1. Bring one litre of water to the boil with a pinch of salt, then add the carrot, onion and leek which have been roughly chopped.  Throw in the rosemary and 2 cloves of garlic and  simmer for 2-3 minutes.

2. Add the peas and bring back to the simmer for for 2-3 minutes more. Strain the mixture but remember  to retain the water. Remove the carrot and rosemary but leave the leek and onion.

3. In a blender, puree to peas, romaine lettuce and 2 cloves of peeled garlic and half of the mint, with some of the stock you just made, then once blended add more stock until it reaches the desired consistency (I made mine pretty thick, but you could add more stock if you prefer). Add the butter and finally season to taste.

4. Serve with a swirl of fresh yogurt and the rest of the mint, chopped finely and sprinkled on top as a garnish