Easy Peasy Fresh Pea Soup

One of the errands I ran after finishing up my massage work today was getting some unscented Dr. Bronner's liquid soap, so I can make this homemade toothpaste recipe.  I'll confess I still have not made the deodorant recipe I've been planning to do for several months.  But this seems pretty easy, and doable at the moment.  Plus, it helps that I'm running out of toothpaste... at present, Trader Joe's Fennel toothpaste, which I'm loving.  The closest Trader Joe's is about 2.5 hrs. roundtrip, so I'm not sure when I'll get there again.  I'll let you know the results of my toothpaste-making foray.

The weather has turned cool again.  I'm not sure if it's made it above the upper 50's today.  Cool temps always make me think of soup, so we're having fresh pea soup, which is totally different from dried pea soup.  The recipe is from The Enchanted Broccoli Forest, a cookbook I've had since the mid-80's.  I look forward to this soup as much as I do the asparagus soup each spring.  The fresh herbs are what make the magic.

Fresh Green Pea Soup

1 tbs butter                                                                           
1 cup minced onion
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups fresh, raw, sweet peas
1 1/2 cups water or stock
1 cup milk or half-and-half
freshly ground black pepper
Fresh herbs (choose all or some):  basil, dill, thyme, tarragon, parsley, chives


In a saucepan, cook the onions with salt in butter until soft.
Separately steam the peas until they are bright green and just tender.
Add steamed peas and stock or water to sauteed onions.  Cover and simmer about 10 minutes.
Puree about 1/3 (I like 1/2) of the soup in a blender or processor; return puree to saucepan.
Add milk or cream.  Do not cook any further.
Heat carefully just before serving, if needed. Snip in desired amounts of fresh herbs- kitchen scissors make this easy.  My favorite combination is dill and chives.