Chilled Green Pea Soup on a Hot Summer’s Night

I love nothing more than chilled soup on a hot summers night, in fact, I love soup.  Ask my old roommate and she will tell you that there were not too many nights that she didn’t see me eat soup.  My favourite is Butternut Squash soup in the winter, and my recent discovery of Chilled Green Pea Soup put’s it closely behind good ol gazpacho as my favourite summer time soup!

Nothing beat’s getting home from work at 10pm and having a huge pot of soup waiting for you in the fridge.  Pair it with a salad and Ta-Da, you have the perfect summertime dinner!  Soup  saves me from splurging on food that has no nutritional value for me, sure it would be easy to come home and just eat a bag of chips for dinner and call it a night, but i gotta fit into a wedding dress next year, so that’s why i love it so much.

Did you know, green peas are naturally abundant in folate, vitamin B1, vitamin B6, carotenoids, tryptophan, vitamin K, manganese, healthy protein, and a number of other health-promoting nutrients.

Once you’ve tried it, you won’t ever go back to canned soup.

• 3 cups frozen peas
• 2 cups sugar snap peas, thinly sliced
• 4 cups vegetable stock
• 3 shallots, thinly sliced
• 1 small yellow onion, thinly sliced
• 2 celery ribs, thinly sliced
• 1 carrot, thinly sliced
• Olive oil
• 3 sprigs of mint, about 6 inches in total stem length
• Salt + Pepper to taste

• 1/4 cup greek yogurt
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• Salt + Pepper to taste
• Strips of fresh mint for garnish

METHOD

In a medium saucepan heat the olive oil on a medium heat.  Add the shallots, yellow onion, celery and carrot and cook until softened but not browned, about 2-3 minutes.

Add the broth and mint sprigs to the vegetables, increase the heat and bring to a boil.  Add the frozen peas, sugar snaps and salt and pepper to taste.  Return to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until the peas are just tender, 3-5 minutes.

Discard the mint sprigs and purée the soup until smooth (I love using my Cuisinart Hand Blender, Smart Stick).

In a small mixing bowl, add the greek yogurt, garlic, mint leaves and salt + pepper and mix until combined.

Ladle the chilled pea soup into bowls and drizzle with a little olive oil.  Add a nice sized dollop of the greek yogurt mixture and top with the remaining chopped mint and serve.

Note:  Refrigerated, this soup will keep for up to a week.  It also freezes nicely.