Frozen peas, frozen spinach and fresh mint are the main ingredients in this fantastic minted sweet pea and spinach soup from the Silver Palate Cookbook.
"This rich elegant soup is a perfect beginning for an important dinner." That's how Sheila Lukins and Julie Rosso, chef/author's of The Silver Palate Cookbook, describe this soup. I agree. I've served it as a first course at many dinner parties over the years. It's a great dish for entertaining because it comes together fast and always stirs up excitement at the table. It's also great for a casual meal. A bowl of intense green goodness with rich earthy peas and spinach, sweet sautéed onions and bright fresh mint.
I especially love making this soup in the springtime, when my garden is overflowing with mint.
The Silver Palate Cookbook is one of the best cookbooks ever written. Russo and Lukins are the brilliant chefs who invented Chicken Marbella, my favorite curried butternut squash soup and many other wondrous delicacies. When The Silver Palate Cookbook arrived on the scene in the early 80’s, I could hardly believe what it held - the ability to cook all those incredible dishes at home was beyond thrilling to me. Certain dishes became forever favorites, like this simple elegant soup.
If you know the original Silver Palate Recipe for Minted Sweet Pea and Spinach Soup, you may wonder why I omitted the 1 cup of heavy cream from my version. Here's why: after I made this soup many times, with and without cream, I discovered that I absolutely love and prefer this soup without the cream. But if you decide to add the cream, you won't be disappointed. It's delicious both ways.
Frozen Veggies vs Fresh
I generally prefer using fresh seasonal veggies in my cooking. However in a dish like this, where everything is simmered and pureed, frozen peas and spinach work beautifully. The mint, however, has to be fresh to give this soup its wonderful bright mintiness.
How To Make Minted Sweet Pea and Spinach Soup
If you're like me, you'll probably agree that the hardest part of this recipe is defrosting the frozen spinach, because I never remember to take the spinach out of the freezer the day before and I'm very impatient when I'm ready to cook a recipe. So I figured out How to Defrost Frozen Spinach Fast. Put the frozen spinach in a mesh strainer over the sink and run lukewarm water over it, squeezing the frozen blobs of spinach between your fingers to help crush the ice clumps. Once all the ice has melted, push the spinach against the strainer to press out most of the remaining water.
Now that the spinach is dealt with, on to the easy part:
- Sauté the onions in butter, until tender. For dairy-free or vegan soup, substitute a mild flavored olive oil.
- Add peas, spinach, chicken broth, salt and pepper to the pot and simmer gently for 20 minutes. To make it vegan, substitute good quality vegetable broth.
- Add the fresh mint leaves, simmer for 5 minutes, and puree the soup with an immersion blender or in a food processor.
- Ladle the soup into bowls and garnish with a fresh spring of mint or a swirl of cream, if you like. Serve hot.
By the way, this soup freezes well so you might consider making a double batch and freezing half.
Here's the recipe for Minted Sweet Pea and Spinach Soup. If you try this recipe I hope you'll come back to leave a star rating and a comment. I'd love to know what you think!
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Sweet Pea and Spinach Soup with Fresh Mint
- Total Time: 55 minutes
- Yield: 4-6 portions 1x
Description
A wonderful minty pea and spinach soup that's easy to cook and worthy of a special occasion.
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoons sweet butter (or olive oil for vegetarian or vegan)
- 2 cups chopped yellow onions (2 medium onions)
- 10 ounces frozen chopped spinach, defrosted
- 10 ounces frozen peas, defrosted
- 3 cups low sodium chicken broth (or vegetable broth)
- 2 cups loosely packed mint leaves (from about half of a large bunch of fresh mint) plus a few extra sprigs to garnish, if desired.
- Malden sea salt, if you have it, or Kosher salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- A few tablespoons of heavy cream or creme fraiche to garnish, optional
Instructions
- Melt the butter in a large Dutch oven or heavy pot over low heat. Add the onions and stir to coat with butter. Cover the pot and simmer onions gently until tender, about 25 minutes.
- Add spinach, peas, broth, salt (½ teaspoon) and a few grinds of pepper, and turn the heat up to bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook gently, partially covered, for 20 minutes.
- Stir in mint, cover the pot, and simmer for 5 minutes more.
- Puree the soup using an immersion blender or in a food processor, until smooth. Correct the seasoning with salt and pepper, to taste.
- Garnish, if you like, with a spring of fresh mint in each bowl or a sprinkle of chopped fresh mint and/or a swirl of cream or creme fraiche. Serve hot.
Notes
Want to freeze this soup? It freezes well and will last for 6 months or more in an air-tight container.
- Prep Time: 10 min
- Cook Time: 45 min
- Category: Soup
- Method: Simmer
- Cuisine: American
Becky
Hi Lisa,
I came across this when looking for a recipe using fresh peas. My admiration for the Silver Palate girls tells me this will be good with frozen!
A tip for the spinach…a potato ricer does a great job of squeezing the liquid from the spinach.
Thanks for the recipe!
Becky
Heidi
ok, YUM! i didn't have enough mint, so i tossed in the soft stems. added garlic, and didn't add salt. i love this. now to find some crusty crunchy bread.... thank you! ~h
andre patry
Easy and delicious
Sally
Love it! Made it multiple times. My mom actually has the Silver Palate cookbook & introduced me to it. Thanks for posting the recipe because I lost my book while moving.
Deb Perugi
Thanks Lisa for sharing the pea soup recipe. I had not idea you could make pea soup from frozen peas! Trying this out very soon.
Lisa
I hope you enjoy Deb!