As I’ve already shared the roasted garlic recipe, I thought I’d share the soup recipe I made it for originally. I first came across this recipe in an early Nigel Slater book, who in turn got it from Nigella Lawson. I’ve made the soup several times, although I had to adjust it quite a bit before it came out as I liked it – Nigella does like a lot more cream and butter than is good for anyone’s arteries! This is my final version, enough for two large portions or four smaller ones. It’s dinner party or Christmas starter worthy and one of my favourite ‘soup and a sandwich’ lunches.

• Roasted garlic paste – the equivalent of half a whole head of garlic. The recipe can be found here.
• *400g frozen petits-pois
• 200ml chicken stock
• 20g butter
• 50ml double cream
• A pinch of white pepper
• Sea salt to taste
• 2 tablespoons of freshly grated Parmesan

To make…

*You can make this into a smooth soup with all the peas or cook 300g of peas to make the smooth base and add the extra 100g for texture afterwards.

• Place the peas in a large pan with just enough water to cover them. Bring the water up to a simmer and cook the peas for a couple of minutes.
• Add the roasted garlic paste, butter and the chicken stock. Blend in the pan with a stick blender until very smooth.
• At this point you can set the soup aside if you want to serve it later.
• To serve, gently reheat the pea soup base for a few moments so as not to spoil the fresh flavour (add in the extra 100g of peas now if you didn’t use all 400g in the base of the soup earlier). Stir in the cream and parmesan and stir to incorporate completely. Season with white pepper and a little more salt to taste if necessary.
• Add a little extra swirl of cream and some grated Parmesan before serving.

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