Minted Pea Soup with White Bean Asparagus Bruschetta

This is a perfect light spring meal for when you’re feeling all vernal and stuff. All the green makes it soothing to the eyes and the smooth texture and surprisingly big taste of the soup make it easy on the palate.
I generally avoid having to lug out the blender but this soup is so easy I think it’s worth it. You also get double duty if you make the bean spread in the blender as well.
This meal has a lot of little prep parts to it and little cooking time, so you could cut the time in half if you had someone helping you. If you’re cooking on your own it will take about 50 minutes. Just make sure someone else does the dishes.

Serves: 2
Time: 50 minutes

Soup

1 small sweet onion (Vidalia or Spanish), diced
1 Tbl butter
1 10 oz package frozen baby peas or 2 cups fresh peas (I used the fancy organic frozen peas)
2 cups boxed veggie broth
1 Tbl chopped mint
½ tsp salt
sour cream, crème fraiche, or yogurt to top - optional

 White Bean Asparagus Bruschetta

1 loaf of french bread (I used wheat)
1 can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
¼ cup olive oil
1 clove garlic, chopped*
juice of 1 lemon
1 tsp thyme
1 bunch of asparagus, trimmed and cut diagonally into 3 inches pieces
salt and pepper to taste

Soup
Melt the butter in a large soup pan. Add the chopped onion and sauté on low heat until the onion is translucent but not browned, about 7 minutes.

Add the veggie broth, peas and mint. Bring to a simmer and cook until peas are heated through.

Pour everything into a blender or food processor and puree until smooth. Be careful not to splash hot green soup on yourself.

Pour into bowls and top with a dollop with sour cream and jaunty sprig of mint.

Bruschetta
Slice the bread on a diagonal, brush with olive oil if desired and put into a 350 degree oven or toast in a toaster oven.

Heat a little olive oil in a skillet and sauté the asparagus flipping every few minutes until done, about 10 minutes.

In a bowl, add the beans, olive oil, garlic, lemon, thyme, salt and pepper.

Blend with a blender, hand blender, or with the back of a spoon and lots of elbow grease.

Serve the bread with a smear of the white bean spread and topped with a few slices of asparagus.

*I used two cloves of garlic. The Sistaster said the garlicky bean spread tasted delicious, but no one will probably ever kiss her again. I retorted something witty like “I doubt it will have anything to do with the garlic.” Sisterly banter aside, use two cloves at your own risk.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 11th, 2006 at 9:14 pm and is filed under Soups & Stews, Spring. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.