1 cup vegetable broth
1 cup peas
1 clove garlic, crushed
2 tablespoons fresh basil or mint, chopped
1 tablespoon heavy cream
black pepper

1. Bring vegetable broth to a boil in a sauce pan. Reduce the heat to a simmer and add the garlic and peas.
2. Cook the peas until tender, about 10 minutes. Stir in the basil or mint and season with black pepper.
3. Use a hand blender or otherwise to puree the soup to a smooth consistency.
4. Stir in heavy cream to serve.

Makes 1 serving

After several unpleasant bouts of canned pea soup as a kid, I'd pretty much written it off entirely. Pea soup became nothing more to me than an Exorcist stage prop or something to be eaten during the depression. Earlier this year I made Split Peas and Ham and it was surprisingly good. So, I reconsidered the whole idea of pea soup again and decided to make it for myself.

Green Pea Soup likely has many variations. I took the simplest recipe I could find that sounded like more than mashed peas. I used a hand mixer to liquefy the soup, which caused it to froth somewhat and resemble a cappuccino. I tried swirling cream in to make a heart or something fancy, but I failed miserably. This soup was much lighter and runnier than any pea soup I've had previous. The difference was nice at first, since having a new take on it to contrast the bad memories wasn't a bad thing, but I sort of missed the wood glue texture of the original. The flavor was refreshing, like a slightly salty shot of creamy wheatgrass, but too overpowering to really eat an entire bowl of. Perhaps with the addition of crackers or adding less broth for a thicker consistency would make this a better soup.