Healthy, delicious and easy! Three words that fit perfectly for this delicious creamy soup of spring pea, almond ricotta, mint leaves, seeds and tender sprouts! Are you ready to start cooking with us?
Ingredients for the creamy soup:
1 cup peeled fresh peas
1 white onion
1 clove garlic
1 cup vegetable stock
1/2 cup coconut cream
5 mint leaves
Salt to taste
Ingredients for the almond ricotta:
1 cup of almonds soaked 1 night
4 cups mineral water
1/4 cup lemon juice
Salt to taste
Fresh herbs: Dill – Chives – Oregano – Cilantro
Extra virgin olive oil
Others for plating:
Baby pea shoots
Activated and toasted seeds (pumpkin – sesame – sunflower)
Tender shoots of fine aromatic herbs: Dill – mint – chives
EVOO
Preparation:
1- Peel and chop the onion and garlic and place in a pan with a little neutral oil. Over a medium heat, sweat with a pinch of salt until both ingredients are softened.
Add the mint leaves and continue cooking for a further 5 minutes.
Add the peas and cook for 3 minutes along with the garlic, onion and mint.
Add the previously heated stock and cook for 5 minutes to boil.
Add the coconut cream, cook for 2 more minutes and remove from the heat.
Use a food processor to blend the preparation until it becomes a very smooth and homogeneous cream. Add salt and pepper, a dash of extra virgin olive oil and a few more mint leaves to taste.
Set aside.
(It is better to cool this cream quickly if it is not to be served immediately, in order to better preserve all the spring green colour of the peas).
2- To make the almond ricotta, first make the milk in a food processor, grinding the previously soaked almonds from the night before, with the cold mineral water. Strain the milk through a cold mesh strainer.
Reserve the pulp for other preparations (crackers – Cookies – Etc.). With the resulting milk, put it in a saucepan over low heat to heat until it reaches approximately 80 degrees centigrade. At this point, add the lemon juice and leave to stand off the heat. Once the milk is lukewarm and the watery part and the fatty part have been separated, strain it through a fine-mesh strainer again, but this time lined with a fine cheesecloth or similar. Leave the liquid to decant well in the fridge overnight. The next day, we will take the resulting peck well drained and season it with the chopped herbs to taste, the extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper and if we like, we can add spices, citrus zest, etc. Keep in the fridge until ready to use. This recipe has multiple uses!
3- To finish, heat the cream (it can also be served cold), and place on the plate a few small spoonfuls of our vegan ricotta, fresh and fine herb shoots, the tender pea shoots, seeds to taste to give a crunchy texture to the mixture, extra virgin olive oil, extra virgin olive oil, and a few spoonfuls of our vegan ricotta. extra virgin olive oil and finish with the pea cream.
