Hi, foodies in the Hive!
I hope you are all having a happy day.
In many cultures, including Venezuela, pea soups and pottages have been popular for many years, not only because they are a sustaining food but also because of their pleasant taste and nutritional properties. A pea soup, with or without meat, is comforting on days like these, when the weather is cool to cold in my sunny city.
Today I want to share with you the recipe for a pea pottage that I prepared at home yesterday, for lunch. It's a very nutritious and tasty dish and also very affordable; I spent only a little more than 1$ for 4 portions and everyone was happy. Not bad, right?
I didn't have to dig too much in my fridge, not only because there is almost nothing left, as usual on Wednesdays, but also because this soup has very few ingredients.
To cook the peas in the pressure cooker, I used:
- 1 tablespoon of sugar
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 1 tablespoon of fresh crushed garlic
- 3 medium-sized bay leaves
- 8 cups of water
- 1 ripe plantain (2 cups approx.)
To prepare the sweet and sour vegetables, I used:
- 2 cups carrots
- 2 cups of red onion
- 1 cup of sweet chili
- 1/2 cups of tomatoes
- 2 tablespoons fresh garlic
- 1/2 tablespoons sugar
- 2 tablespoons white vinegar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
The first thing to do is to cook the peas. I used a pressure cooker because it is faster this way; I added the water, peas, salt, sugar, garlic, and bay leaf and let it cook for 30 minutes once I could hear the pot start to release pressure.
After I turned off the heat, I stirred in the cooked peas to make sure they had the consistency of a pottage and let them sit for the mixture to firm up before adding the ripe plantain slices. This way I could know if I needed to add more water; peas tend to give a very thick broth, which thickens more and more as it cools.
The next step is to cut the vegetables into not too small pieces, as we want to be able to feel them in the pottage. The carrots I used were tiny, so I cut them into slices. Then I sautéed them in a little bit of olive oil.
I let this cook for 5 minutes on low heat, and then I added the diced tomato and crushed garlic, about 2 tablespoons of white vinegar, and 1/2 teaspoon of salt.
After 5 more minutes, I turned off the heat. While the flavors of the vegetables were integrating inside the wok with the lid on, I finished cooking the peas.
I put the pot of peas back on the heat and added the thick slices of ripe plantain into the boiling pottage. I let this cook for 5 minutes on low heat and then I could serve the food.
Each serving of food was two ladles of pottage and one ladle of vegetables.
My husband put some Parmesan cheese and black pepper on his.
... I didn't, as I was in the mood for a vegetarian dish.
