Nigella Lawson Yellow Split Pea And Frankfurter Soup Recipes

NIGELLA LAWSON YELLOW SPLIT PEA AND FRANKFURTER SOUP

Steps:

• Peel the onion, carrot and garlic and cut the onion and carrot into rough chunks. Put them all, along with the roughly cut up stick of celery into the bowl of a food processor. Blitz till all are finely chopped.
• Spoon the oil into a heavy-based wide saucepan and put on medium heat. When warm, add the chopped vegetables from the processor and cook for 5-10 minutes, until soft but not colored.
• Add the ground mace-give a good stir and then add the split peas and stir again until their are glossily mixed with the oil-slicked, cooked-down vegetables. Pour over 5 cups stock and add the bay leaves, then bring to a boil. Cover, turn down the heat and cook for about an hour until everything is tender and sludgy, adding more stock as needed. Sometimes the peas seem to thicken too much before they actually cook and need to be watered down. Taste for seasoning once everything's ready.
• You can add the frankfurters as you wish. It's probably easiest just to cut them into slices - I tend to add them in chunks of about and inch each - and throw them into the soup warm, but I just put them in the microwave (40 seconds on high is about right for one or two franks) then slice them hot and add them to each person's bowl as they come. Not an elegant soup, I'll admit, but a near-perfect one.

PEA AND PESTO SOUP

Steps:

• The quickest way to proceed is to fill a kettle first and put it on to boil. When it's boiled, measure the amount you need into a pan and put on the stove to come back to a boil.
• Add the frozen peas, scallions, salt and lime juice and let everything bubble together for 7 minutes.
• Discard the scallions and blitz the peas and their liquid with the pesto in a blender.*
• Pour into a thermos flask that you've left filled with hot water and then emptied and make sure you screw the top on securely.
• *When blending hot liquids: Remove liquid from the heat and allow to cool for at least 5 minutes. Transfer liquid to a blender or food processor and fill it no more than halfway. If using a blender, release one corner of the lid. This prevents the vacuum effect that creates heat explosions. Place a towel over the top of the machine, pulse a few times then process on high speed until smooth.

YELLOW SPLIT PEA AND FRANKFURTER SOUP

Steps:

• In a food processor, combine onion, carrot, celery and garlic. Process until finely chopped.
• Place a heavy, wide saucepan over medium heat, and add oil. When hot, add chopped vegetables, and sauté until soft but not colored, 5 to 10 minutes. Stir in mace. Add split peas, and stir to mix well.
• Add 4 cups stock and the bay leaves, and bring to a boil. Cover, and reduce heat to low. Simmer until peas are very soft, about 1 hour. Stir soup with a wooden spoon. If desired, adjust thickness of soup with additional stock.
• Add frankfurter pieces to soup, and simmer until well heated. Ladle into bowls and serve. (Alternatively, soup may be ladled into bowls and frankfurter pieces heated in a microwave oven, and added to each bowl as desired.)

HEARTY SPLIT PEA SOUP WITH BACON

Steps:

• Dice bacon into 1/4-inch cubes. Place in a heavy 6-quart pot over medium-low heat. Cook until fat is rendered and translucent. Add onion, carrot, celery and garlic. Cook until onion and garlic are soft and translucent. Season with salt and pepper.
• Add split peas, stir to coat with fat, and add bay leaves and 2 quarts stock. Increase heat and bring to a boil. Reduce heat so soup simmers. Skim foam that rises to the surface for about 10 minutes, until no more appears. Add thyme leaves. Simmer uncovered about 1 hour or longer, until peas are soft and starting to fall apart. Add more stock, as needed.
• Remove soup from heat. Add salt and pepper to taste. Purée soup in a food processor in several batches, short of perfect smoothness; you should be able to spoon up some texture. Reheat soup, skimming off any foam. Stir from the bottom to mix well, then ladle into bowls and serve.