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Heston's Pea and ham soup Zoomer icon

Heston's Pea and ham soup

Heston's Pea and ham soup

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Heston's Pea and ham soup

''The great thing about this soup is its vibrant colour in the dead of winter when fresh green vegetables are hard to find. The peas are frozen within hours of being picked, retaining all their sweetness and flavour so we can enjoy them throughout the year. The shredded ham hock adds a satisfying depth and texture that is perfect for shortwinter days.'' Heston

Preparation time:
15 minutes plus defrosting
Cooking time:
10 minutes
Total time:
25 minutes plus defrosting 25 minutes
Serves:
 4

Ingredients

  • 907g bag frozen essential Waitrose Garden Peas
  • 20g mint leaves
  • 50ml grapeseed or groundnut oil
  • 65g unsalted butter
  • 75g sliced shallots
  • 1 clove garlic, peeled and chopped
  • 160g unsmoked streaky bacon, cut into strips
  • 750ml vegetable stock
  • 180g pack Cooks’ Ingredients Pulled Ham Hock

Method

Spread the peas out on a baking tray lined with kitchen paper and allow to defrost completely.

Bring a pan of water to the boil and drop in the mint leaves for15–20 seconds. Remove the mint and submerge immediately in a bowl of iced water. Remove the mint and dry the leaves with kitchen paper. Put the mint and oil in a liquidiser and blitz for 10–15 seconds. Strain the oil through a sieve and reserve for finishing the soup.

Melt 25g of butter in a saucepan and add the shallots, garlicand bacon. Cook for 5 minutes over a medium heat until softbut not coloured.

Add the stock and simmer for 5 minutes. Add all but 75g of the peas and the remaining butter and remove from the heat immediately. Liquidise this mixture thoroughly, in batches if necessary.

Strain through a fine sieve, pressing through as many solids as possible and pour into a clean pan. Season to taste, then gently rewarm the soup.

With a hand-held blender, blitz the soup until foamy, then add the ham hock and remaining peas.

Carefully ladle the soup into 4 bowls and drizzle each bowl with the reserved mint oil.

Copyright © Heston Blumenthal 2011

Comments and images

Average user rating 2 stars out of 5

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LuccaLove

LuccaLove 15 August 2011 19:19

This recipe is not difficult, only time consuming bit is pushing everything through the sieve - this isn't for wimps, you really need to push it through, turn it over, push it through - you get the picture. I've made this a dozen times since I first came across the recipe card at my local Waitrose, and love it so much I keep repeating it, especially as my family asks for it (even the kids!) We leave the mint out (personal taste) - and use both of the ham hock packs, not just one - must be the carnivore in us. Try this, it IS wonderful - and you can make it well in advance. It saves for at least a day without a change in colour or taste! Perfect as a light starter for four OR a main for two hungry people. If you want to feed four people this as a main I would suggest you double the recipe.

 11 June 2011 18:10

Foreget about the seiving , just cook the stuff that needs cooking. I rarely bother to seive unless its the 3 fish mousse from the roux brothers cook book! It all takes so much more time so unless it's a really special meal don't bother. It tastes wonderful though and I think much better than the preprepared varieties.

Fussy, messy, expensive and time-consuming but the taste was good! Not a recipe I would do again.

 24 May 2011 14:32

Fussy, messy, expensive and time-consuming but the taste was good! Not a recipe I would do again.

LozzaW

LozzaW 11 February 2011 10:45

This was delicious! I didn't bother defrosting the peas, used left over water from the boiled unsmoked gammon the night before (http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/168623/gordons-honey-glazed-ham). Threw in a parmesan rind for extra flavour and instead of the hock I used some of the left over gammon. If I made this for a dinner party then I would consider the mint oil and I'd like to know what you could do with all the excess mushy bits that are left over.

JohnBeales

JohnBeales 06 February 2011 19:35

Time consuming and very expensive (over £7.00) for what was little more than 2 bowls of soup. Sorry Heston but I have had much better soups at a fraction of the cost and in a much shorter time (and with a lot less washing up). John

Zia_Mays

Zia_Mays 06 February 2011 15:38

Loved the emerald green colour and lovely sweet rich pea flavour. Like others here, I decided that blending, sieving and then more blending was too much and gave it one really long whizz in the liquidiser - we like our soup a little bit rustic anyway. The mint oil was the only disappointing element - mine didn't taste very minty and didn't really add anything to the dish.

JuMow

JuMow 03 February 2011 19:28

Tastes delicious but I found it time consuming to make and my kitchen also looked like a bomb site when I'd finished!

sramdeen

sramdeen 02 February 2011 20:55

This is the first time I've tried one of the Waitrose recipe cards that I see every week in the isles. I thought it was time to get a bit more adventurous in the kitchen and expand my repertoire. I am actually eating it now whilst typing! The soup itself is wonderful. Similar to the Covent Garden pea & ham soup that I normally buy but with a subtly different flavour. The only thing against it is that it took a very very long time to prepare. I can't imagine it being something I'll be cooking very often. The step which consumed the most amount of time was pushing it through the sieve. I still ended up with a huge amount of pulp that wouldn't go through. I had blended it first with a hand blender and then transferred it to a food processor for a few minutes set to its highest speed - perhaps I need to buy a liquidiser if such a thing exists? After a good 30-45 mins pushing the soup through I ended up with 1.2 litres of soup. I think it'll be enough for four small servings or three main meal type portions. Oh, lastly, I only added half of the suggested ham hock because even with only one packet in it looked like it was enough.

Tinkers

Tinkers 31 January 2011 18:33

Made this soup for lunch today. Taste was excellent, but finished consistency was on the thin side, so added some of the pea remains back. Kitchen did look like a bit of a bomd site on completion due to all utensils etc used. Wouldn't serve as a main meal as suggested in this weeks Waitrose weekend - there would be a major protest in my household due to lack of offerings. However would make as a starter

Jifdif

Jifdif 30 January 2011 18:26

Haven't made it, however the recipe reads BEAUTIFULLY! I am a long in the tooth, experienced cook/chef. One can tell from the ingredients, this man knows his stuff. Kudos to Heston on his eye opening, scary expose on the horrific situation of our fishermen and fish. Well done you, Jamie and Hugh too. The more people who know the better.

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2 stars out of 5

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Nutritional Info

Typical values per serving:
Energy 579.0kcal
Sugars 6.9g
Fat 40.2g
Saturated Fat 14.9g
Salt 4.0g

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This recipe was first published on Waitrose.com in January 2011