food to glow

Naturally creamy-textured from the starchy goodness of peas, this blended Creamy Vegan Broccoli, Basil and Pea soup makes the most of the summer garden. But is also fabulous made with frozen. Endlessly adaptable, too.

After an extended dry spell Scottish gardens have gratefully received much-needed rainfall. Buckets and rain butts of the stuff. It comes to something when a Scottish gardener is having to drag the watering hose out everyday to stop their garden from wilting. That’s just not normal. Today is sunny but cool – perfect for our crops. But is it selfish of me to want just a bit more rain? It can come overnight if it wants. 

The only problem with the recent rain is the recent growth spurt. Not just of stuff you want bursting through. No, it’s all the damn weeds. My green-fingered, retired neighbour Kath, with her neat-as-a-pin garden, has complained to me of the leaves blown in from last week’s storm. If only it were just leaves I need to clear away. I can barely see the edibles for all of the waving verdure. Brushing through the growth I have been harvesting basil, parsley, soft thyme and rosemary, kale, rocket, chard and broccoli. But it’s all getting a bit leggy and needs using before bolting away and setting flowers and seeds.

garden broccoli – a bit overblown

Other than grabbing fistfuls and flinging it in my wok, I love to make soup with my garden excess.

This naturally creamy soup is a firm favourite in our house, and at work. I change it up according to what I have to hand – or don’t have. When basil isn’t seasonal I complement the natural flavours with bought pesto (no shame in that). In the dead of winter – or if I am making great vats of soup (it happens) – I often choose frozen. But right now, fresh is best, and cheap, and so good. If fresh isn’t so fresh where you are, please use frozen vegetables. Frozen is often as nutritious or even more nutritious than fresh, if “fresh” has been hanging around awhile. In fact, making this soup creamy are frozen peas. Always.

Fresh peas are treasured green pearls to me. I’d rather pop them straight in my mouth or onto a salad for a wonderful texture and sweet taste. I have sugar snap peas growing – or trying to grown in the thicket of sage and lovage that is threatening to swamp them. I can barely find them, to be honest. When they morph from tiny white flower to pinky sized pod, I will be out with my scissors. Or more likely pinch them from the vine and shove them straight into my mouth. None. I repeat none, have ever made it into a pot, much less freezer.

Come to think of it, I’m not sure Andrew even knows I grow sugar snap peas. Maybe I won’t clear away those weeds after all. 🙂

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RIPE FOR PINNING!