Pea Soup With Black-Cat Croutons - W |
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Prep Time: 20 Minutes Cook Time: 100 Minutes |
Ready In: 120 Minutes Servings: 8 |
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Every dream you'd see a black cat floating in your soup? Well you can now! And a tasty tidbit it will be. You might want to use those party sized pumpernickle loaves. The small sliced ones. Ingredients:
5 slices bacon |
2 medium onions, chopped |
2 large carrots, peeled and chopped |
1 large celery rib, chopped |
2 garlic cloves, minced |
2 (32 ounce) cartons low sodium chicken broth |
1/2 cup water |
1 1/2 cups split peas, rinsed |
1 (5 ounce) bag baby mixed greens |
2 bay leaves |
1 teaspoon dried thyme, crumbled |
1 1/2 teaspoons salt |
fresh ground black pepper, to taste |
8 slices frozen firm pumpernickel bread (thin slices) |
1 tablespoon butter, melted |
3 tablespoons olive oil |
1/2 cup sour cream (optional) |
Directions:
1. MAKE SOUP:
2. Sauté bacon in large pot over medium-high heat until crisp and brown. Remove and set aside.
3. Add onion, carrot and celery to pan; sauté until vegetables begin to soften.
4. Add garlic; sauté 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. REMOVE BAY LEAVES!
8. Puree 5 cups soup in batches in blender and 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 bread.
15. Lightly brush cutouts with butter mixture and arrange on a cookie sheet.
16. Bake until crisp, about 15 minutes. Cool croutons in pan on a rack.
17. To serve, ladle soup into bowls. Crumble reserved bacon on top.
18. Add a cat crouton and a dollop of sour cream to each bowl.
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