Pea and ham soup

There's an oft-quoted statistic that Britain throws away a third of the food it buys.  This is a fact that makes me very cross (I hate waste) so I try very hard to do my part to lessen it.

Glancing around the kitchen today, I noticed a few things that wanted using up so I set to making something tasty out of them.  There was the last of the new potatoes we had with lamb last week, a couple of slices of ham, and there are always peas in the freezer - here comes pea and ham soup!

I do feel that part of the blame for the enormous waste lies with the supermarkets.  The new potatoes came from Tesco, where they have a very limited selection of loose veg so you always end up buying a bag which is probably bigger than you actually need and throwing half of it away.  I normally buy the amount of ham that I actually need from the deli counter but when I bought this ham I only had time to get to the small local Sainsbury's which doesn't have one, so I had to buy a bigger packet than I really needed.

This probably isn't too much of a problem for families, but it's a real pain for single people and couples.  Never mind though - with a bit of imagination you can always find a use for leftovers.

I had a look around online for existing pea and ham soup recipes before I got started,  Most of the ones I found are a bit more luxurious than this, using a whole ham bone to make stock etc.  This one is a bit simpler as its brief is to use up leftovers so if you're looking for a more impressive one feel free to go a-googling elsewhere.

First of all, peel the new potatoes and cut them into equally-sized pieces so that they'll cook at the same time.  Put them into cold water so that they don't go brown.

Next, peel and chop an onion and a clove of garlic.  I happened to have onions in the fridge and they do add flavour, but feel free to miss it out if you don't have any - the point of this recipe is not to buy anything in order to make it!

Sweat the onion and garlic in oil over a low heat until translucent - the point is just to soften them and take the raw edge of the flavour off, not to make any brown crispy bits.  Use a large saucepan rather than a frying pan - we're going to make the whole thing in one pan to save on washing up.

Next, add about 750ml stock.  I've used the last of the stock I made from the roast chicken a couple of weeks back, topped up with water, but stock cubes are fine too.  Season with salt and pepper, and your choice of herbs.  Thyme would be good, but we had some mint sauce in the fridge that my girlfriend bought last time we had lamb and I love minty peas so I chucked a generous teaspoonful of that in.

Add the potatoes and cook for about 15 minutes, until they're pretty soft.  Overcooking is better than undercooking here - it is soup after all!

 

Once the potatoes are done, throw in a really generous amount of peas and continue cooking until they're done - about four minutes.

I had a little taste and decided it needed a little bit more kick, so I threw in a generous teaspoonful of horseradish sauce (mustard would have worked just as well).

If you're intending to eat it straight away, carry straight on.  However, I was cooking with the intention of freezing it for lunches next week so I left the pan to cool for half an hour at this point.  It's purely a safety measure - if something goes wrong when blending, I'd rather spray myself and my kitchen with cold soup than dangerous boiling hot soup.

Into the blender it goes, along with a couple of slices of ham, and whizz until it reaches the consistency of soup.

These quantities made three quite generous portions which are now happily freezing in their separate tupperwares.

Taste verdict

I did taste as I was going along, and I'm pretty happy with it.  You need to use decent quality peas (I always get Bird's Eye) as the cheaper value brands don't really taste of anything.  They're so cheap anyway that there doesn't seem much point in skimping.

Financial verdict

I toyed with the idea of claiming this to be free, as the ingredients would have gone in the bin anyway, but of course there's not really any such thing as a free lunch.  An onion costs about 20p, a 900g bag of Bird's Eye frozen peas is only £1.75, a couple of slices of ham is probably about £1, potatoes don't cost much and you should have the rest in the cupboard.  It made three portions, so shall we say about £1.80ish per portion, if you actually went out and bought the ingredients for it?  I beg you not to though - this is a leftover special.

The skinny

Please note - no precise measurements here because it all depends on what you've got knocking about.  Just use everything up and don't throw anything in the bin!

Peel new potatoes and place in cold water to prevent them from going brown

Peel and chop an onion and a clove of garlic

Sweat the onion and garlic in oil over a low heat until translucent

Add about 750ml stock (depending on how many potatoes you have to cook in it)

Season with salt, pepper, and herbs (thyme or mint maybe)

Add potatoes and boil for about 10-15 minutes

When the potatoes are soft, add a generous amount of frozen peas and cook for a further four minutes

If not serving immediately, leave to cool at this point for safety's sake

Add a couple of roughly torn-up slices of ham, taste and adjust seasoning if necessary

Pour into a blender and whizz until it becomes soup