North Croatian Green Peas Soup
This is one of my grandmother's recipes that I have deciphered from her manuscript. I am making the soup today, so here is how it goes:
This is one of my grandmother's recipes that I have deciphered from her manuscript. I am making the soup today, so here is how it goes:
- 1/8 teaspoon dried thyme
- 50 grams butter
- 1 tablespoon all purpose flour
- 500 grams peas
- 150 grams green onions
- 100 grams carrot
- 100 grams lean smoked slab bacon best: croatian pancetta
- 5 grams fresh parsley
- 5 grams celery leaves
- 1000 ml beef stock
- 50 grams sour cream
- 1 teaspoon fresh chives minced
- 7 grams salt
- 2 grams pepper
- Carbohydrate 26.7484714094139 g
- Cholesterol 31.25 mg
- Fat 12.760929478882 g
- Fiber 7.52469667612767 g
- Protein 13.3083439024955 g
- Saturated Fat 7.71187805208313 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Serving (431g)
- Sodium 601.67939689567 mg
- Sugar 19.2237747332863 g
- Trans Fat 0.991625964898676 g
- Calories 267 calories
Step-by-step
- Clean the green peas and put it into hot water for 5 minutes.
- Grate of slice carrot and sauté on butter; after a while, mince onion and sauté both on butter until onion is translucent.
- Add finely sliced pancetta and sauté not more than 5 minutes.
- Add flour and fry about 2 minutes, than add cold water and make creamy liquid (like sauce veloute).
- Cut green parts of spring onion, mince parsley and celery leaves and add into pot.
- Add green pea and about 1 liter of beef stock.
- Add salt and pepper.
- Cook until green peas are soft.
- When soft, remove green pea and blend it into puree (leave 1/6 of peas untouched).
- You can blend it with stick blender.
- Add thyme and cook 15 minutes.
- At the end add sour cream and minced chive.
- Serve with croutons.
Why do some pureed vegetable soups turn out chalky while others maintain a velvety suspension? Starch retrogradation and particle sizing dictate mouthfeel in legume-based broths. Whole peas contain intact cellular walls that trap amylose, whereas blended peas rupture those walls, releasing starches into the beef stock. Sautéing the flour in butter for precisely two minutes gelatinizes the wheat starch granules, creating a roux base that prevents the dairy fats from separating later.
Controlling Texture Through Differential Blending
Removing a fraction of the peas prior to puréeing is critical for structural contrast. Blending five-sixths of the cooked legumes creates a smooth purée, while leaving the remaining sixth intact preserves distinct structural bites. Adding cold water immediately after frying the flour prevents scorching by rapidly dropping the pan temperature below the burning threshold of the roux. Sour cream introduces lactic acid toward the end of cooking; high heat coagulates dairy proteins, so stirring it in off the boil keeps the emulsion intact.
- Grainy texture usually stems from undercooked flour or an underpowered immersion blender; strain the base through a fine-mesh sieve if particulate size exceeds 0.5 millimeters.
- Leftovers stored below 4 degrees Celsius will thicken overnight as starches retrograde, requiring a splash of hot beef stock to restore fluidity during reheating.
- Pancetta fat must render slowly over medium heat to prevent the exterior proteins from burning before the internal pork fat liquefies.
