15-Minute Spring Pea and Pesto Soup

This soup only takes 15 minutes to make - are you kidding me?  I just spent 15 minutes alone picking out a new mascara at the drug store today!

I needed for my Souper Sunday soup to only take 15 minutes to make today after being a little bit of a wild party animal last night at a small local pub in my town.  Because I still live in the town that I grew up in, a visit to a place like that is always an interesting version of a high school reunion (sometimes in a good way and sometimes in the exact way that you would expect).  Last night was no exception.  My girlfriend Kendra and I were definitely on the dance floor flopping around to 90's rap music (and one thing that you have to understand about that is that I never dance), and laughing hysterically until the ugly lights came on and we went home.  There's nothing like a great friend to be silly with.  So, today this is why my cloudy head needed a very, very easy soup.

And this one is just that.  There is not even any chopping involved in making this soup.  None.  I didn't even use a cutting board or a knife in this entire recipe.  Everything just gets dumped into the pot, and, voila, you're done (pretty much).  It's the perfect quick, easy, light soup now that the weather is starting to warm up a little bit.  The colour of the soup is a gorgeous green and so so so tasty looking.

You can use fresh homemade pesto to make this soup, or you can use the fresh tubbed variety.  Do not use the jarred variety...the taste of a jarred pesto is totally and completely different than the kind that you would make at home or find in the refrigerated section of the grocery store.  The jarred version is very bitter compared to the fresh version, and I personally don't care for the taste of it at all.  I wanted to make the soup quickly today, so I used Costco's Kirkland brand of pesto sauce instead of making my own.

This guy

I like a garlicky pesto, so I added a couple of cloves of garlic to give it some va va voom.

This is the first time that a Nigella Lawson recipe has made an appearance on this blog, although I own two of her cookbooks, 'Feast' and 'How To Eat.'  Her books are so brilliantly and humorously written, and could almost be something that I would curl up with to read with a cup of tea like I would a novel.  I just love that British dry wit.

I hope you enjoy this week's instalment of Souper Sunday...

15-Minute Spring Pea and Pesto Soup

Serves: 6 - 8

Ingredients

• 6 cups water
• 750 grams frozen peas (about 6 cups)
• 4 green onions
• 2 teaspoons Kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon lime juice
• 1/2 cup fresh pesto (not jarred)

Directions
Bring the water to a boil in a large pot over high heat.  Add the peas, green onions (whole), salt, and lime juice.

Boil for 7 minutes.  Remove green onions.  Add pesto.  Using a hand blender, puree until smooth, or use a food processor or blender and work in batches.  Enjoy!

Recipe Source: www.nigella.com

 

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