Pea Soup with Black-Cat Croutons
CATEGORIES
INGREDIENTS
  • Cooking Time: 120
  • Servings: 8
  • Preparation Time: 20
  • 5 slices bacon
  • 2 medium onions, chopped
  • 2 large carrots, peeled and chopped
  • 1 large celery rib, chopped
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced
  • 2 (32 oz.) cartons low-sodium chicken broth
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1-1/2 cups green split peas, rinsed
  • 1 (5 oz.) bag baby mixed greens
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 1 tsp dried thyme, crumbled
  • 1-1/2 tsp salt
  • Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
  • The croutons:
  • 8 thin, frozen slices firm pumpernickel bread
  • 1 Tbsp butter, melted
  • 3 Tbsp olive oil
  • 1/2 cup sour cream, optional
DIRECTIONS
  1. Make soup:
  2. Saute bacon in large pot over medium-high heat until crisp and brown. Remove and set aside.
  3. Add onion, carrot and celery to pan; saute until vegetables begin to soften.
  4. Add garlic; saute for 1 minute.
  5. Add broth, water, peas, bay leaves and thyme; bring to a boil.
  6. Reduce heat to medium-low, partially cover pot and simmer until vegetables are tender and peas fall apart, stirring occasionally, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
  7. Puree 5 cups soup in batches in blender.
  8. Return to pot.
  9. Stir in salt and season with pepper to taste.
  10. Make croutons:
  11. Preheat oven to 300ºF
  12. Remove pumpernickel slices from freezer and let thaw for 5 minutes.
  13. Mix butter with olive oil in a small bowl.
  14. Use a cat cookie cutter to cut a shape from each partially frozen slice of pumpernickel.
  15. Lightly brush cutouts with butter mixture and arrange on a cookie sheet.
  16. Bake until crisp, about 15 minutes.
  17. Cool croutons in pan on a rack.
  18. To serve, ladle soup into bowls.
  19. Crumble reserved bacon on top.
  20. Add a cat crouton and a dollop of sour cream to each bowl.