Creamy Pea Soup with Mint

Finns eat pea soup every Thursday. Well, at least they used to. But still today it’s a very traditional Thursday lunch, followed by oven-baked pancake as dessert. The bad news is – it takes a lot of time to make pea soup out of those dry peas. First you need to soak them overnight, then cook for 90 minutes or so – and on a regular Thursday, who has time for that?

This pea soup obviously has very little to do with the traditional one. But it’s a soup, it’s made out of peas – and it’s absolutely delicious. And it only takes ten minutes to make it!

This is what you need for 2 big or 4 small portions:

• 65 onion


• 300g frozen peas


• 500ml broth


• 50ml heavy cream (for a vegan version, use non-dairy)


• 1 Tbsp all-purpose flour


• 150g sour cream (for a vegan version, use non-dairy)


• a handful of mint leaves


• 1 Tbsp olive oil


• salt and black pepper to taste

And this is how to make it:

1. Heat the broth in a saucepan. Add chopped onion and let cook for 2 minutes.

2. Then add peas, bring to the boil again and let cook 6 minutes, or until the peas are thoroughly cooked.

3. Purée the soup with a hand mixer.

4. Now combine flour and heavy cream in a jar with a lid, close the lid and shake. Add the cream-flour-mixture to the soup and whisk gently while doing this. Bring to the boil once more and let cook about one minute.

5. Take away from heat and divide on the soup plates.

6. Combine sour cream, chopped mint leaves, olive oil, and salt and pepper in a bowl. Place a generous dollop of cream mixture in the middle of each soup plate.

7. Serve with a slice or two of good dark bread! As a dessert, oven-baked pancake is a must.

Avocado Soup with Lemon and Coriander

I love guacamole. Whenever there’s good guacamole around, I wish I could just take the whole bowl and spoon it all up! Well, with this soup, I can finally do that without looking like I’m lacking all manners ;) This rich and smooth soup is like guacamole gone to heaven... And best of all, it only takes 5 minutes or so to make it. Amazing!

This soup can be served either cold or warm. I prefer it warm. Not hot, though: when warmed up too much, the avocados get a horribly bitter taste. Been there, done that..! So, any leftovers should be eaten cold rather than be warmed up again.

Remember to only use ripe avocados!

For 4 small or 2 very big portions you need:

• 500ml vegetable broth


• 200ml heavy cream (non-dairy cream for a vegan option)


• 500g peeled avocado, the seed removed (about 2 big or 3 smaller ones)


• 3 Tbsp lemon juice, or to taste


• salt and black pepper to taste


• fresh coriander to serve

This is how to do it:

1. Bring the broth to the boil. Remove from heat.

2. Pulse the avocados and lemon juice with a hand mixer into a smooth puree.

3. Now, add cream and avocado puree into the hot broth. Stir, check the taste, and add salt and pepper according to taste.

4. Divide into soup bowls, sprinkle with some fresh coriander and serve with a slice or two of good bread.

Could cooking get any easier than this?!

Stock made with Grilled Vegetables

This is a perfect recipe for those that are not feeling adventurous enough (yet?) to eat carrot peels, radish greens and such perfectly edible but less noble parts of vegetables. Here those parts are grilled in the oven, then cooked to get a delicious stock – to be used in your next risotto, for example.

To make the stock, I chose a variety of vegetables, as you can see from the picture: carrot, cucumber, rutabaga, kohlrabi, radish...the more diversity, the better!

Grilling the vegetables first brings another depth to the flavour of this stock. If you’re in a hurry, though, you can skip the grilling part and cook the vegetables right away.

For about 1 liter of stock you need:

• 900g vegetable greens, stems, peels, stalks – organic and well washed


• 2-3 onions, quartered


• a couple of garlic cloves, halved


• salt, pepper, and olive oil to taste


• 1 liter of water

Place the vegetables, onions, and garlic cloves on an oven tray. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and olive oil, and grill in a preheated oven (250 C) 15-20 minutes. Check once or twice the veggies and stir them so that the ones on top don’t burn!

Once nicely grilled, take the vegetables out of the oven. Place them in a saucepan with 1 liter of water. Bring to the boil and let simmer over a low heat, covered, about 30 minutes. Check salt and add more if needed. Then run the stock trough a sieve, discard the vegetables, and your home-made stock is ready to be used!

P.S. If any vegetables did burn, remove them before cooking the broth. Burned veggies give a bitter taste to the stock :(

Radish Green Soup

If you’ve ever been to Portugal, you know that a meal without a soup just isn’t possible. Even the Portuguese McDonald’s serves soup, I’ve been told. And there’s a fast-food chain serving only soups!

The inspiration for this soup comes from the most famous Portuguese soup, caldo verde. But instead of Portuguese kale, traditionally used in this soup, I opted for radish greens – a part of radishes I wasn’t used to eat! But they actually taste better than the actual radishes, if you ask me. They have a pleasant, nutty taste, and can be used fresh in a salad as well.

If you’re a meat eater, feel free to add a couple of slices of choriço per portion. Instead, I added some Backerbsen, or traditional German soup pearls.

For 4 portions, served as a starter:

•  200g leek


• 2 garlic cloves


• 450g potatoes


• the greens of 2 radish bunches


• olive oil


• salt and pepper to taste


• Backerbsen, if available


• water or vegetable broth, about 1 liter, divided

First, peel the potatoes and cut into cubes. Wash the leek and chop it. Peel and slice the garlic. Heat olive oil in a saucepot, add potatoes and leek and fry over a low heat for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the garlic and let fry a 1-2 minutes. Then add water or broth to amply cover the vegetables, and salt and pepper to taste. Cover and let simmer over a low heat until potatoes are tender, or some 20 minutes. Puree with a hand mixer.

In the meantime, prepare the radish greens. Wash them thoroughly and chop, using a knife or scissors. Boil about 300ml water or broth in a smaller pan. Add 2 pinches of salt (not needed if using broth) and the radish greens. Let cook until the leaves are cooked but still somewhat crunchy. It goes quite quickly!

To serve, divide the pureed soup onto four soup plates. Then divide the radish greens on the plates – with a bit of their cooking water, especially if the soup is very thick! Then sprinkle some olive oil, salt, and pepper – and Backerbsen, if available. Enjoy with a slice of good bread – and good conscience!

P.S. Unfortunately, one needs to peel the potatoes to make this soup. But instead of throwing them away, you could deep-fry them in oil, sprinkle with some salt, and serve as chips! Remember to use organically grown potatoes and wash them well.