Pea soup Saint-Germain: Flavorful French dish recipe
Illustrative photo (Freepik)
The French Saint-Germain pea soup is a delectable, hearty, yet refined starter. This soup is typically prepared with a meat broth, adding peas, vegetables, and fried bacon, along with herbs to give it a subtle aroma, citing the culinary website Shuba.
Ingredients for Saint-Germain pea soup
- Peas - 700 g
- Bacon - 150 g
- Meat broth or stock - 2 liters
- Butter (73% fat) - 40 g
- Carrot - 1 piece
- Onion - 1 piece
- Leek - 100 g
- Peppercorns - 10 pieces
- Garlic - 2 cloves
- Salt - 1.5 tsp
- Rosemary - 1 sprig
- Thyme - 2 sprigs
- Celery - 1 stalk
- Parsley - 2 sprigs
- Bay leaves - 2 pieces
- Culinary twine - 10 cm
Directions
A distinctive feature of preparing this soup, besides adding fried bacon, is the use of a "bouquet" of herbs - the herbs are gathered into a bundle, tied with a food-safe twine, and removed from the soup after imparting their aroma.
It's best to cook the soup in the morning or evening as the peas need time to soften, having been soaked in water for 12 hours beforehand. Then, you can start making the dish.
Wash and peel the carrot and celery, then slice the carrot into circles. Peel and dice the onion. Rinse the leek, separating the green part. Dice the bacon.
Heat the butter in a deep pot over medium heat, add the diced onion. Sauté the onion for 2 minutes, then add the carrot.
Mix the ingredients and cook for another 2 minutes. Add the diced bacon, mix the sauté, and cook for another minute. You can either transfer the bacon to a separate bowl and add it to the soup in pieces or blend it into a homogeneous consistency in the soup.
Strain the liquid from the peas using a colander and transfer the peas to the pot with the vegetables. Add salt and peppercorns to the soup. Peel and chop the garlic, add it to the pot, and mix the ingredients.
Gather the rosemary and thyme sprigs along with the bay leaves and green celery and leek stems into a "bouquet," tying them with culinary twine. Place the "bouquet" in the pot as well.
Pour the broth or water over the ingredients, bring the soup to a boil. Then, cover the pot with a lid and let simmer for 45-50 minutes over low heat.
Once ready, remove the herb "bouquet" and peppercorns, and blend the soup until smooth. Then, add the bacon if you removed it from the pot. All done!
