Pea soup | Jamie Oliver recipes (2024)

FAQs

What is the difference between split pea soup and pea soup? ›

A recipe for "pea soup" from 1905 is made with split peas, salt pork and cold roast beef. The soup is strained through a sieve to achieve the desired texture. "Split pea soup" is a slightly thinner soup with visible peas and pieces of ham, especially popular in the Northeast, the Midwest and the Pacific Northwest.

Split pea soup naturally thickens as the peas break down during cooking and also as it sits, especially if refrigerated. If it's too thick for your liking, you can easily thin it by adding a bit of chicken or vegetable broth, or even water, until you reach your desired consistency.

Split pea soup can be too thin due to various reasons. One common reason is using too much water or broth while cooking. Additionally, if the split peas are not cooked long enough, they may not release enough starch to thicken the soup.

Add flour or cornflour

Put a tablespoon of either into a small bowl and stir in 2-3 tbsp of the soup until you have a smooth mixture. Stir this back into the soup and bring it to a simmer. Cook for a few minutes to allow the starch granules to burst to thicken, and to cook out any flour flavour.

It's true, soaking peas overnight in water shortens their cooking time. But soaking isn't entirely necessary. Split peas cook relatively quickly. Unsoaked peas take from 1 to 2 hours of simmering; soaked peas take about 40 minutes.

Cooking. Bring about 1.5 cups of water or broth to a boil for every cup of lentils or split peas. Add the lentils, allow water to return to boiling, reduce heat, partially cover pan, and simmer for 30 to 45 minutes, depending on the variety.

Update: If you overcook, the soup will get even thicker than usual! and turn a little bit of an olive drab color--it will still taste good though!"

Add a bit of lemon zest to make those peas really sing. You can try the fresh pea approach with your favorite split pea soup recipe, but this super traditional, easy version is an Epicurious favorite.

Garlic Cloves – add a fabulous flavour to this frozen pea soup. Fresh Ginger – should be peeled before chopping. If you have too much, try using it up in my Vermicelli Soup. Red Onion – gives a great undertone to this healthy pea soup.

Very likely the embryo of the peas! Each side of the pea is an endosperm, like the white of an egg. These are probably just left over embryos of the peas, or the yolk, if you will.

Should I skim the foam off pea soup? ›

Today, a quick poll of our test kitchen staff confirmed that this early soup wisdom still stands: Soup scum should be skimmed off and discarded.

You can thicken soup by adding flour, cornstarch, or another starchy substitute. For the best results, never add flour or cornstarch directly to your soup. If you do, it will clump up on top. Instead, ladle a small amount of broth into a separate bowl and let it cool.

The most classic and surefire way to thicken a broth-based soup is with a cornstarch slurry. Whisk together equal parts cornstarch (or arrowroot) and water or broth, then whisk it into the pot of soup. A good ratio to get to a pleasant thickness without your soup tasting goopy or heavy is one tablespoon.

If you were short on peas, you can thicken with a slurry—a raw starch such as rice flour or cornstarch mixed with water, then whisked into the soup. The soup needs to come to a boil for the starch to gelatinize.

Split peas are just normal peas that are dried and split to speed up the cooking process! Split peas are a type of legume and can be eaten as a vegetable or protein. They can be either green or yellow. Green split peas have a slightly sweet flavor and yellow peas are more mild.

Why do they call it split pea soup? Split pea soup is made from dried split peas so it is named after the main ingredient. Split peas are called such because of the process used to preserve them. They are peeled, dried, and split.

Surprisingly, they do not taste like green peas when cooked. If you were to make a pea soup (from fresh or frozen peas that were blended) it would bear a different result. I, personally, find the flavor of pea soup off putting, yet split pea soup is one of my favorites!

Split Pea Soup Ingredients

So make sure to grab a bag of dried split peas rather than fresh peas. Split Peas: You can use dried green split peas or yellow split peas in this recipe. Just not that green ones tend to be a bit sweeter and yellow ones tend to be a bit more earthy.