Pea & watercress soup

Pea & watercress soup

By Good Food
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
(16 ratings)
By
Magazine subscription – 3 issues for £5

Prep: 5 mins Cook: 15 mins

Easy

Serves 4
Sweet peas and peppery watercress are a perfect match for early summer, but you can adapt this soup to suit all year round

Nutrition and extra info

  • Freezable
  • Vegetarian

Nutrition: per serving

  • kcal256
  • fat18g
  • saturates8g
  • carbs17g
  • sugars5g
  • fibre5g
  • protein8g
  • salt0.21g
Save to My Good Food
Please sign in or register to save recipes.
Print

Ingredients

  • 1 tbsp olive oil
    olive oil

    Olive oil

    ol-iv oyl

    Probably the most widely-used oil in cooking, olive oil is pressed from fresh olives. It's…

  • 1 onion, finely chopped
    Onion

    Onion

    un-yun

    Onions are endlessly versatile and an essential ingredient in countless recipes. Native to Asia…

  • 1 garlic clove, roughly chopped
  • 1 medium potato, cut into small chunks
    Potato

    Potato

    po-tate-oh

    The world's favourite root vegetable, the potato comes in innumerable varieties. A member of…

  • 500ml vegetable stock
  • 300g fresh peas (or frozen if out of season)
    Peas

    Peas

    p-ees

    A type of legume, peas grow inside long, plump pods. As is the case with all types of legume,…

  • 100g watercress
    Watercress

    Watercress

    wort-er-cress

    With deep green leaves, and crisp, paler stems, watercress is related to mustard and is one of…

  • leaves from 2 mint sprigs, plus extra to garnish
    Mint

    Mint

    mi-nt

    There are several types of mint, each with its own subtle difference in flavour and appearance.…

  • 100ml double cream

Method

  1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan, then gently fry the onion and garlic for 5 mins or until soft. Add the potato, stock and 500ml water, then simmer for 7 mins until the potato is just cooked.

  2. Scatter in the peas and watercress, stir, cover, then simmer for 3 mins. Add the mint leaves and blitz with a hand blender until smooth. Stir in the cream and season to taste. Serve ladled into bowls, scattered with more mint and some cracked black pepper.

  • Recipe Tip

    Tip

    For entertaining, crumble a small handful of feta over each portion or, for a non-veggie option, pan-fry some pancetta and scatter over the top.

  • Recipe Tip

    Variations

    Use spring onions, rocket and sorrel in spring, and frozen peas and leeks in winter.

You may also like

Comments, questions and tips

Sign in or create your My Good Food account to join the discussion.
Laura Pattenden Hunt's picture
Laura Pattenden Hunt
19th May, 2020
5.05
Love this recipe, made it loads of times. Seems to work with any leaves not just watercress. You can use salad leaves that are past their best, spinach, rainbow/Swiss chard, anything really! We put a dash of milk in our bowls instead of putting cream into the main pot. This helps it to keep for longer and is lower fat than cream. Also we hardly ever have cream in the house and milk seems to work just as well! Really yummy recipe! Love it!
Jillsy3
1st Sep, 2014
4.05
Nice but the watercress flavour got a bit lost beneath the pea and mint. Will try again with extra watercress
clare211
8th Jul, 2014
5.05
A great recipe, perfect for summer. I didn't have any mint, but the soup was very nice even without it.
gordonsfan
20th May, 2013
I didn`t have much watercress so added some rocket and left out the cream souper soup!
mirren27
30th Apr, 2013
Just made this for kids - absolutely delicious! Easy, nutritional & perfect for a spring evening meal!
bigalan1964
17th Aug, 2012
5.05
I used 150g watercress which gave it an extra peppery taste and a little less mint. Delicious!
daves-angel
13th Jul, 2012
4.05
Very, very good soup. I used an enormous baking potato and milk instead of cream. Absolutely delicious :)
michellecchan
23rd May, 2012
Lovely soup, made it without mint and added crumbled feta when serving.
reeshiez
6th May, 2011
4.05
I made this soup twice - one with chicken stock and the second time with vegetable stock. The chicken stock definitely overpowered the watercress and peas but with the vegetable stock, it was lovely. I omitted the cream and used milk instead. Will definitely make it again!
rachthecook
6th Aug, 2010
5.05
Absolutely beautiful! I omitted the mint and added a tiny bit of cripy panchetta on the top to serve.

Pages

philippalakebaker
26th Jan, 2015
Confused.com: The list of ingredients in the recipe states 500ml of vegetable stock, there is no mention of water. The instructions state 'add stock and 500ml water'. I note that without the extra water, the vegetables will make the soup VERY thick. So should it be 500ml vegetable stock PLUS 500ml water? Thank you. (I have added extra water so will be interested to see/taste the result).
goodfoodteam's picture
goodfoodteam
27th Jan, 2015
Hi philippalakebaker, thanks for your question. As a rule we don't include water in our ingredients list as we try and make it clear for shopping purposes. You will need both 500ml of vegetable stock and 500ml of water. Sorry for the confusion. Let us know how it went. 
carol362636's picture
carol362636
8th Sep, 2016
I only used 500ml stock in my soup maker I couldn't get all the peas in but was fab!
carol362636's picture
carol362636
8th Sep, 2016
I did this in my soup maker without any pre cooking and it turned out really well. Also used yogurt instead of cream for very acceptable quick low fat version.
Want to receive regular food and recipe web notifications from us?