East African Sweet Pea Soup Recipes

EAST AFRICAN PEA SOUP

Steps:

• Sauté the onions gently in oil in a covered pot, stirring frequently, for 5 to 10 minutes, until the onions are just translucent.
• Add garlic and saute for 1 minute.
• Mix in the ginger, salt and all the spices and sauté for 2 minutes, stirring often.
• Add the tomatoes and sweet potato.
• Stir well.
• Add 1 1/2 cups water and stir.
• Bring the soup to a boil.
• Reduce the heat and simmer, covered for 5 minutes.
• Add half of the peas and simmer, covered, for another 10 minutes, or until the peas and sweet potato are tender.
• Remove the soup from the heat and stir in the remaining 2 cups of water.
• Purée the soup in a blender or food processor in batches until smooth.
• Return soup to the pot, add the remaining peas and gently reheat.

QUICK SWEET PEA SOUP

Steps:

• Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat. Cook onion about 10 minutes or until lightly browned and soft, stirring frequently.
• Blend onion, peas, spinach, lemon juice, thyme and 2 cups chicken broth in a blender or food processor until very smooth. Return to same saucepan. Stir in remaining broth. Gently heat about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
• Stir in cream, if desired. Heat over low heat about 1 minute. DO NOT BOIL. Garnish with garlic croutons, if desired.

PEA SOUP EAST AFRICAN STYLE

Steps:

• In a large saucepan heat oil and saute onions and garlic until onions are translucent. Add ginger, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, curry powder and saute for about 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Add tomatoes, squash, chicken or vegetable stock and deglaze pan. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer, covered for 20 minutes. Add 2 cups of the peas and simmer, covered, for another 10 minutes or until peas and squash are tender. Using an immersion blender puree soup in pot. Add remaining peas and reheat. Stir in cilantro. Adjust seasoning. Serve hot.

AFRICAN SPLIT PEA SOUP

Steps:

• Rinse peas, put in soup pot with 3 cups water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 45 minutes to an hour.
• Meanwhile, saute the onions and garlic in oil until translucent. Mix in spices and saute for 5 - 10 minutes more, stirring frequently to prevent burning. Set aside.
• When the split peas are cooked, stir in the onion mixture along with the vegetable stock.
• Add the lemon juice and cooked rice, season with salt and pepper.
• Stir in the parsley and gently reheat if necessary.

EASY SWEET PEA SOUP

Steps:

• Cook frozen peas in a saucepan with water; cover and cook until peas are very tender (but not overly wrinkly).
• Then drain and whir the peas in the blender or food processor until soup-like in texture, adding the chicken stock as necessary (you want a nice thick soup).
• Take whirred peas from blender and put back into the saucepan, adding the pinch sugar, nutmeg, and salt/pepper.
• Heat through.
• Swirl a little sour cream into each serving, and this dish looks and tastes great!
• Makes 3 to 4 servings.
• You can add a little bit of minced onion in, if you like, and a few sliced mushrooms are good, too.

WEST AFRICAN PEANUT SOUP

Steps:

• Heat olive oil in a large stock pot over medium-high heat. Cook onion, bell pepper, and garlic until lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Stir in tomatoes with their juice, vegetable broth, pepper, and red pepper flakes. Simmer, uncovered, for 15 minutes.
• Add rice to soup and stir. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer 25 minutes, or until rice is tender.
• When rice is cooked, whisk in peanut butter and return to a simmer, and serve. Garnish with chopped roasted peanuts, if desired.