Pea soup with bacon

I’ve attempted a green pea soup once before. It was decent, but was missing something. Yesterday I tried out the pea soup recipe in Greg Atkinson’s West Coast Cooking.

As always, what I did is somewhat adapted from the cookbook. If you want the official recipe, buy the book.

• ½ stick unsalted butter
• 1 medium onion
• 1 head iceberg lettuce
• 2+ cups chicken broth
• 1½ pounds frozen green peas
• 6 ounces bacon
• ½ cup breadcrumbs

1. Cut bacon into small pieces
2. Fry bacon until crispy
3. Drain fat and dampen bacon on a paper towel
4. Mix bacon and breadcrumbs
5. Peel and thinly slice onion
6. Wash and shred lettuce
7. Heat butter in large soup pot over medium high heat
8. Cook the onion until tender
9. Add lettuce
10. Cook just until wilted
11. Add chicken broth
12. Wait for boiling
13. Add peas
14. Cook about 10 to 15 minutes until peas are tender
15. Purée soup in blender a couple cupfuls at a time
16. Salt and pepper soup to taste
17. Sprinkle breadcrumb/bacon stuff on top of served soup

This time the soup was pretty tasty. I think the addition of onion and bacon helped quite a bit. I don’t remember exactly what was in the last recipe, but I’m pretty sure those weren’t in it.