June Soup
Submitted by fancy31
June soup is a chunky split pea and summer vegetable soup brightened with lemony sorrel and built on a lemon-scented homemade chicken stock. Rustic, fresh, and left deliberately unblended so every vegetable keeps its bite.
YIELD
4 servingsPREP
9 hrsCOOK
2 hrsREADY
11 hrsThis is a soup that tastes like early summer, which is exactly where the name comes from. It layers split peas with diced fennel, turnip, carrots, and onion, all softened slowly in olive oil before any liquid goes in, so each vegetable holds onto its own character.
The flavor hinges on two things most pea soups skip. First, a homemade chicken stock simmered with a whole lemon tucked inside the bird, which lends the base a gentle brightness. Second, a handful of torn sorrel stirred in near the end. Sorrel brings a lemony, almost sour edge that cuts the earthiness of the peas; spinach fills in if you must, but it won’t deliver that same tang.
One instruction is worth following to the letter: don’t blend it. Left chunky, the soup stays bright and varied, with distinct vegetables and a light broth. Puree it and the split peas take over, turning the whole pot heavier and one-note. Crush the garlic with a little sea salt for a mellower, more even bite throughout.
Kitchen Tips
- Soak the split peas well ahead and give them a hard, uncovered boil for the first 10 minutes before simmering. It helps them soften evenly.
- Don’t salt the peas’ cooking water. Salted too early, they can stay stubbornly firm.
- Add the sorrel at the very end. It collapses and loses its fresh acidity if cooked too long.
- Resist the urge to blend. This soup is meant to stay chunky and bright.
Variations
- No sorrel? Spinach plus a good squeeze of lemon juice mimics the acidity.
- Swap thyme for marjoram, or add a bay leaf to the stock.
- Make it vegetarian with a good vegetable stock in place of the chicken broth.
Ingredients
Directions
The day before making this soup, place a cut-up lemon inside your chicken and boil for just over 1 hour (for a 1.35 kg/3 pounder), adding a peeled onion and carrot, black peppercorns and sea salt to the water. Strain off the broth and refrigerate it overnight.
Soak the split peas either overnight or for several hours, then boil them in plenty of unsalted water for 30 minutes to 1 hour until they are soft.
The first 10 minutes of boiling should always be fast and uncovered; the rest may be a steady simmer with the lid on.
Meanwhile, peel the onions and turnips, and scrape the carrots and fennel; chop them all into small dice and soften them for 15 minutes in olive oil in a heavy, covered pan.
Crush the garlic in a mortar with a little sea salt and add it to the vegetables with the tomatoes and the thyme or marjoram, raising the heat a little and cooking uncovered for 5 to 20 minutes while breaking up the tomatoes with a wooden spoon.
Then add the drained split peas, the skimmed stock and the washed and torn-up sorrel leaves. (Spinach will do, but it will not contribute such an interestingly acidic flavour.)
Bring to the boil, simmer for 30 minutes, cool and serve.
Add more salt ift he split peas seem to demand it, but do not liquidize the soup unless you want their taste to be dominant.
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