Recipe #1 – Quick & delicious pea soup
Well today is the first day of Spring here in the Southern Hemisphere, sadly Cape Town, my beautiful Cape Town is cloudy and drenched… not exactly spring time weather…
So what better time to pull out a winter favourite, a soup, one with peas. Now don’t get me wrong, I love peas, I’m just not sure I like them in soup, esp without ham, though I can safely say it tasted as good as it looks and I can see why it is perennial favourite, even without the meat.
I didn’t run a timer on this one, but am pretty sure I overshot the 20 minute meal mark. It was somewhat elaborate, requiring 2 pots/pans and a griddle pan (which I still need, a thick frying pan was the best I could come up with), a far side more than my typical ‘one pot cooking’ of old, but it was certainly worth the effort!
What really impressed me in this was not so much the recipe, but one of the ingredients, the vegetable stock.
This has ALWAYS been an issue for me and I’ve gone through SOOOOOO many brands and always left wanting because the amount of sodium in them is SCARY!
I mean I love salt as much as the next guy, but I don’t enjoy waking up in the middle of the night, parched and feeling like I’ve been put through the ringer at boot camp (am I the only one who gets this way from OD’ing on Salt?).
My wife discovered a product by a local company called NoMU. This particular product is called NoMU Fonds and it is basically a liquid stock and comes in 4 different flavours, it has a 1/3rd less Sodium than the competing brand I used to use, which was a powered stock and lasts for up to 18 months if refrigerated, which isn’t going to be a problem in our household. It isn’t cheap at double the price of the competing brand, but it is well worth it and tasted delicious.
As far as the recipe goes, it was pretty straight forward and I think it turned out as expected. I think I tore up my Ciabata a little on the chunky side for the homemade croutons and I have to get a griddle pan at some point to aid in their cooking along with some of the upcoming meat dishes.
It tasted great, real, hearty comfort food and the Feta added a nice taste and texture to the mix and it was a great feeling adding in mint from my own garden.
Wow that looks yummy and well done on getting started! I got my griddle pan from Boardmans and it was pretty inexpensive.
Wow, what an amazing site! I might just need to copy the recipes as you make them! :P
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by LadyRaven, Matt Allison. Matt Allison said: I did it! First recipe down, 59 to go! http://ow.ly/2xQaT […]
Hi Matt, your site looks gorgeous and I look forward to reading your journey. I am a big fan of JO.
Well done!!!
sam
Love the way your site looks Matt! Looking forward to inspirational ideas too – maybe my dear husband can watch and learn too :)
[…] know I’m a bit of a fan boy for the Nomu Fonds. I mentioned the Vegetable Fond back in the Pea Soup recipe, so today I decided to try out their Chicken one in this simple, hearty soup. Again, […]
[…] in a quick, easy 20 minute meal and one of our favourite soups thus far, my wife still feels the Pea soup is the best, followed by this one, I prefer this to the Pea soup, but I […]
Thanks for the fond tip. Not many stock powders that don’t leave the soup tasting of stock powder.
http://www.nomu.co.za/products/fonds/vegetable-fond
Sodium 3207mg Per 1 litre ready stock
Knorr Vegetable stock cube
Sodium 3900mg Per 1 liter stock
Here’s my result:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150130749955127&set=a.10150129908630127.320624.515760126
Hi Peter,
Exactly! I’ve become a NoMu convert and now have their full range of Fonds and tried the pork rub last night for the first time adding a bit of extra flavour in lieu of salt and pepper to Jamie’s grilled pork chops with broccoli and beans dish.
All the best with your culinary adventures and thanks for stopping by!
Cheers
Matt
Hello there!
Excuse me, and it’s probably me being dumb, but I can’t actually see the recipes anywhere. I can see the photo and read the blog and the comments, but not the recipe.
What am I doing wrong? thanks.
Hi Jane,
The recipes can be found in Jamie Oliver’s ’20-minute meals’ iPhone app. For legal reasons I can’t repost the content itself, these are purely my reflections on his recipes.
Thanks
Matt