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.