Recipes: Tested Pea & watercress soup

Sweet peas and peppery watercress are a perfect match for early summer, but you can adapt this soup to suit all year round

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 onion , finely chopped
• 1 garlic clove , roughly chopped
• 1 medium potato , cut into small chunks
• 500ml vegetable stock
• 300g fresh peas (or frozen if out of season)
• 100g watercress
• leaves from 2 mint sprigs, plus extra to garnish
• 100ml double cream

  

  1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan, then gently fry the onion and garlic for 5 mins or until soft. Add the potato, stock and 500ml water, then simmer for 7 mins until the potato is just cooked.
  2. Scatter in the peas and watercress, stir, cover, then simmer for 3 mins. Add the mint leaves and blitz with a hand blender until smooth. Stir in the cream and season to taste. Serve ladled into bowls, scattered with more mint and some cracked black pepper.

  TIP
  For entertaining, crumble a small handful of feta over each portion or, for a non-veggie option, pan-fry some pancetta and scatter over the top.
  

  VARIATIONS
  Use spring onions, rocket and sorrel in spring, and frozen peas and leeks in winter.
  

  NUTRITION PER SERVING:

  256 kcalories, protein 8g, carbohydrate 17g, fat 18 g, saturated fat 8g, fibre 5g, sugar 5g, salt 0.21 g 

  source: bbcgoodfood.com