From initial sceptic, I am now a raging Jamie Oliver convert. The great thing is that he makes simple meals sound appealing, or maybe he makes tasty meals sound easy. I bought Ministry of Food last year and I haven’t looked back. When I’m feeling in lack of inspiration before I go to the market on a Sunday, I just leaf through it and something usually pops out at me.
The other night I tried his pea and mint soup. Carrots, celery, onion, vege stock, then throw in most of a packet of peas and simmer for 10 minutes. It’s so simple, the whole thing took me half an hour. Easy-peasy, in fact. Unfortunately I didn’t really reflect on the quantities involved and followed it to the letter, ending up with two litres of admittedly delicious soup. And I don’t have a freezer. Was I going to be eating pea soup for lunch and dinner all week!?
I texted some of my friends who have had the dubious pleasure of consuming the results of my over-catering before, only to get back a reply that peas and mint are probably the only flavour that they don’t like. I mention it to one of my workmates, who screws up her face. Is it like mushy peas, she asks. A little, I admit. Urrgh, no thanks. I started to panic. Would eating all the soup myself put me off it for life?
And what is it about peas? Especially peas and mint. It seems that they are surprisingly polarizing of the taste buds. I mean, there are a few flavour combinations that don’t do it for me – chocolate and mint being one of them, but how could anyone not like peas? Come on guys, in the words of John Lennon, give peas a chance.
(You didn’t think I was going to let that one escape me, did you?)
Anyway, I found some other colleagues who hadn’t blacklisted the humble legume, and this recipe is now the official soup of the Green Growth team at the OECD. So I didn’t have to eat all the soup myself… but I am checking the quantities more carefully next time.
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