The Queen's Table - 11

Here we see pea plants. We turn to Delia for a recipe for pea soup.



Fresh Shelled Pea Soup

This soup is a lovely dark green colour and has all the wonderful ingredients and flavours of peas à la Française – peas, spring onions, lettuce and bacon – blended into a velvety smooth soup.

Serves 4

Ingredients
2 lb (900 g) fresh peas, shelled (weight after shelling is approximately 11 oz/315 g)
2 oz (50 g) butter
4 spring onions, finely chopped
4 lettuce leaves, finely chopped
1 rasher unsmoked bacon, derinded and finely chopped
2 oz (50 g) fresh young leaf spinach
1 teaspoon caster sugar
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh mint
1-2 tablespoons crème fraîche
freshly grated nutmeg
Salt and freshly milled black pepper

Method

First of all, in a large saucepan melt the butter and gently saute the chopped spring onions, lettuce, bacon and spinach for about 5 minutes, then add the peas and some salt and stir everything together. Then pour in 1¼ pints (725 ml) boiling water from the kettle.

Next, add the sugar, put on a lid and let the peas simmer gently for 10-15 minutes, or until they are soft. Now allow the soup to cool a little, then whiz it to a purée in batches in a blender until smooth. You'll find it helpful to have a bowl handy to put the first batch in. Taste and season with more salt (if it needs it) and freshly milled black pepper, then gently reheat. Stir the mint into the soup and serve in hot bowls, garnishing each one with a teaspoon of crème fraîche and a little freshly grated nutmeg just before serving.

Time now for our harvest hymn.

God, whose farm is all creation,
take the gratitude we give.
Take the finest of our harvest,
crops we grow that all may live.

Take our plowing, seeding, reaping,
hopes and fears of sun and rain,
all our thinking, planning, waiting,
ripened in this fruit and grain.

All our labour, all our watching,
all our calendar of care
in these crops of your creation,
take, O God; they are our prayer.