There’s nothing better than a hearty bowl of nutritious homemade soup to warm the cockles ❤

It’s nearly the end of Summer here in the UK and it’s been quite cold recently. I love the turn of the seasons and get quite excited about swapping shorts and vest tops for big chunky cardigans, hot chocolates and cosy nights in but we’ve had a really good Summer this year (for a change) and the cold weather kinda crept up on us!

On one particularly cold day, I decided to make us a batch of pea and ham soup because there’s nothing more warming than a lovely steaming bowl of homemade soup – am I right?? Luckily, I had some gammon left over from roasting a joint a couple of days ago so it was perfect timing.

I’m trying to cut down on the amount of meat I eat so I added the ham and croutons onto hubby’s soup after making it (instead of putting it in the soup) and ate mine without the meat so you have that option too.

Ingredients

Soup

•  1 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
• 1 small diced red onion
• 1 tsp. chopped garlic (or 1 chopped clove)
• 1.5 cups of frozen peas
• 1.5 cups vegetable stock (1 x stock cube plus the 1.5 cups water)
• 2-3 handfuls of fresh spinach or 4 cubes of frozen spinach
• 1 tsp. white pepper
• 1 tsp. turmeric
• Salt & pepper to taste (don’t forget that if you are adding ham, it is usually really salty so don’t add too much salt)

Toppings

• Diced ham / gammon
• Croutons (we love these bruschettas)

Directions

1. Heat the oil in a frying pan on a gentle heat
2. Add the diced red onion and cook until softened
3. Add the garlic and mix well
4. Pop in the peas and stir through until they are defrosted
5. Add the vegetable stock, spinach, white pepper and turmeric
6. Stir and season with salt and pepper
7. Let simmer for 20-30 minutes or so (adding more water if needed)
8. Pop in a blender or blend with a soup maker and blend until smooth
9. Saute the ham and croutons lightly to warm them up (optional) and then sprinkle them on top of the soup

Enjoy!

With love, Tash ❤ x