Chilled Pea Soup with Mint Pesto

If you like, double the Mint Pesto recipe below and use the other half to toss over whole wheat pasta noodles as a main dish to this soup.

For the Mint Pesto: In a food processor, combine one tablespoon pine nuts, one small peeled garlic clove, 2 cups loosely packed fresh mint (don't tamp down in the measuring cup or you'll wind up with way too much), 1/4 cup grated "Parmesan" cheese, a dash of salt and a dash of pepper. Puree until finely minced.

For the Parmesan, use the Vegan Mozzarella block from Galaxy Foods and grate it with a cheese grater. http://www.galaxyfoods.com/

Add two tablespoons water and a teaspoon and a half olive oil to the food processor. Process until blended. Set the pesto aside.

In a saucepan, melt one teaspoon vegan butter (such as Earth Balance). Add 1/2 cup chopped green onions and saute for two minutes, stirring frequently. Sprinkle one and a half tablespoons flour over the onions, and cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Stir in one and a half cups soy milk (such as Silk) and a 14-oz can vegetable broth. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly, then cook for 3 minutes until slightly thick. Add a 16-oz package of frozen peas (unthawed) and cook 5 minutes. Remove from heat.

A few notes on boiling (soy) milk. For some reason it always makes me nervous! (Perhaps I had a bad episode boiling milk in another lifetime...), so I always jump the gun, get anxious that it's taking too long to boil over medium heat so turn it up a notch, then worry constantly that the milk will burn to the bottom of the pan or too much will evaporate out. So first: be patient as the milk boils over medium heat. It will get there eventually! Secondly, the original recipe didn't specify whether or not I was supposed to keep stirring constantly during the 3 minutes after the mixture reached a boil. I erred on the side of caution and did so, but once the peas were in and the bubbles settled down, I only stirred "occasionally" for those 5 minutes.

Phew! My neuroses aside, now pour half of the pea mixture into a blender and puree until smooth. As always when blending hot liquids, remove the center piece from the blender's lid and hold a folded-up paper towel there instead. This allows steam to escape but prevents splattering. Pour the pureed mixture through a fine mesh sieve over a large bowl, pressing with the back of a spoon or spatula. Discard the solids. Now repeat all that with the remaining half of the pea mixture. Don't be alarmed if there's quite a lot of pea-solids to discard! You'll still come out with enough soup.

Stir in 6 tablespoons Mint Pesto (all of it, if you haven't doubled the above recipe), plus a 1/4 tsp. salt and a dash of black pepper. Cover and chill the soup until ready to serve.

This recipe makes 6 servings of 2/3 cup and 150 calories each. It would look even better in delicate little teacups! Garnish with mint sprigs.

Cost:
pine nuts $5.99
mint $1.99
vegan 'parmesan' $3.39
green onions $0.98
plain soy milk $1.49
vegetable broth $1.19
frozen peas $1.29

Oh! And here's the Mint Pesto.