A super Pea Soup

We had a really fun church brunch yesterday, beginning with a chance to do some thanking for 2013 and some thinking and hoping for 2014. It was great to see all ages taking part, with the ice-breaker won by a young team, as well as really good contributions from Daniel and Charis.  Afterwards we shared a meal and managed to see off the final remaining mince pies of Christmas. The main feature was winter soup:  a sweet potato and lentil and a pea and smoked bacon.  Several people asked about the latter, so here’s the recipe for a soup that is tasty, warming, colourful and very cheap to make.

You need (for 4):

• 2 dessert spoons of cooking oil
• 1 medium sized onion, chopped up small
• 1 medium sized potato, diced into 1cm cubes
• 0.5 litre of stock - can be stock cube + water 
• 500 grams of frozen garden peas
• 200 grams of smoked bacon chopped to around 2cms size

Place 1 spoonful of oil into a saucepan on a medium heat. Add the chopped onion and fry gently until the onion is soft but not brown.  Then add the diced potato and add enough stock to cover, return to the heat until the potato is cooked. Add the garden peas and any remaining stock and bring to the boil. This may take a few minutes, so meanwhile fry the bacon in the other spoonful of oil until cooked and then set aside.  After the peas are cooked (2-3 minutes after coming to the boil) turn off the heat and blend the soup using a hand blender or a potato masher until it is smooth and without any lumps or solid peas. Add the bacon and some freshly ground black pepper and stir.  Don’t be tempted to add salt as the bacon will season the soup.