Green Pea and Mint Soup

Ingredients:

Olive Oil - 1 Tbsp

Butter - 1 Tbsp

3 Shallots - chopped ( They look like onions, only much much smaller) 

Garlic - 2 cloves

Green Peas - 3 cups

Vegetable Broth - 3 cups

Water - 2 cups

Half & Half/ Cream or Milk - 1/4 cup

Fresh Mint Leaves - 1 cup

Chilli Powder - 1/2 tsp

Salt and Pepper to Taste

Method: 

In a soup pot, heat the oil and let the butter melt. Then sauté the chopped shallots until translucent. Add the chopped garlic and sauté for another 2 minutes. Now add in the peas, vegetable broth and let them all cook together for about 20 minutes on medium or medium low. Keeping the flame on high would just boil down the liquid and you will be left with dry cooked green peas. What we are trying to do here is let the peas, garlic, shallots cook together in the vegetable broth. So its important to NOT turn the heat very high. 

Once the peas have cooked well,  let it cool, put the broth mixture in a blender/food processor, and at this point add the fresh mint leaves. Blend the entire mixture into the consistency you prefer. 

Bring the blended mixture back to the soup pot, add the chili powder and let it come to a boil. You can add the water at this stage if you want. I seemed to want the 2 cups water after the peas mixture came out of the food processor. Feel free to leave the water out, if you think you don't want it.

Stir in the milk or half & half. Add the salt and pepper to your preference. 

Garnish with croutons. If you want to get fancy, you can garnish with some mascarpone cheese.This soup can be served both hot or cold. 

Extras:

1. I used frozen Peas for this recipe. It works out perfectly fine. But you still want to cook it in the vegetable broth because you want all the flavors of the shallots, garlic, broth to blend and come together.

2. I used low sodium broth, so I can control the amount of salt that goes in. If you don't have vegetable broth, you can most definitely use water. 

3. I used Fat free Half & Half. You can use milk or cream. I wouldn't use skim milk, because I don't think its going to make the soup creamier.

4. If you don't want to use butter, please use 2 Tbsp Olive Oil

5. Fresh Mint is important in this soup. Dried Mint does not give nearly the same flavor. 

 

Chili Verde

We all know finding a good recipe is like finding a needle in a haystack. The sheer number of recipes found on any one cooking website can make a head spin, not to mention the plethora of websites out there. 

Well, you can relax coz I did the sampling for you!! After trying a number of chili recipes out, I landed this one. Its easy and delicious to serve to your family or your guests. 

Try this vegetarian chili verde ( Verde means green in Spanish). Its yummy and all you really need is some bread and you can call it a night!! 

Ingredients:

2 Tbsp Olive Oil

1 Medium onion

1 Cup diced potato( red or white)

2 cups diced Sweet Potato

3 cloves garlic

4 large tomatillos ( remove the husk, rinse it and then chop it)

2 Poblano Peppers 

   --  Dice one pepper

   --  Cut the other in long thick strips ( you need to be able to fish them out from the pot with tongs)

1 TbspDried Oregano

1 Tbsp All Purpose Flour

2 Tsp Cumin powder

2 cups Corn( Frozen or Fresh)

2 Cups Low Sodium Veg Broth or you can also use water

1 small can of diced or crushed green chilies ( I use the mild one. You can use the spice level you prefer)

Method:

Heat the oil in a large pot and sauté the diced tomatillos. Then add the onions, potato, yam garlic and the poblano peppers. Don't let the onions turn brown. Simply sweat the vegetables in their own juices. Mix in the oregano, flour, cumin powder, salt and pepper. Also add the corn, 1 cup of vegetable broth/water. Bring the mixture to a simmer. At this stage put the can of green chilies in the blender. Transfer only the poblano pepper strips to the blender along with the green chilies. Once they're blended well into a smooth paste, transfer them back into the pot. 

Add the remaining 1 cup of vegetable broth/ water, cover and simmer until the potatoes are cooked through. You can stick a fork/toothpick in any of these root vegetables to check if they're tender. Taste it and season with salt and pepper as desired. 

Serve hot in bowls garnished with sour cream( I prefer good old yogurt)

• Sweating the vegetables means not letting any vegetable crisp up or turn brown in the pan. Turn the stove to medium or medium low, add a small pinch of salt and let the veggies cook in their own juices.
• Other garnishes that are good on this chili are diced avocados, cilantro, spring onions, minced chives
• A great accompaniment for this soup is corn bread. You can buy it at your local grocery store. If you don't like corn bread, try some garlic bread or quesadilla