Pea soup is far from a quick story. In addition, it may be clouded by an unsuccessful result. Peas are not cooked, the soup is tasteless, sometimes even looks like jelly. This happens very often. No need to fall into the same mistakes, learn how to bypass the pits!
What peas did you buy?
Few people rejoice at a soup in which whole and hard peas are floating. By default, it should boil, practically dissolve in the broth, give density and its own taste. But this does not always happen. No need to buy whole peas for soup, no matter how beautiful it may seem. Cooking will take several hours and it’s not a fact that everything will turn out.
It is advisable for the soup to choose chopped peas, halves, which are cooked much faster. You can also find pea flakes on sale. Product of fast cooking. It is specially created so that the preparation of soup or mashed potatoes does not take much time. Soup can be made from whole round peas, but this can take a whole day. In addition, on his surface very often a film that does not boil remains to float in flakes in the broth. It is tasteless and ugly.
Helpful advice! Fresh peas are cooked quickly. Therefore, when buying, it is advisable to focus on the production date. It is also recommended to conduct an audit in kitchen cabinets, to get rid of stale cereals.
Didn’t you forget to dunk?
Dry peas must be soaked in cold water. It is advisable to withstand at least three hours, and even better to leave it all night. During this time, the product will swell, increase in size, become soft, and subsequently cook much faster.
How to soak correctly:
- To pea evenly swell, it is important to immediately add a lot of water, it should not just cover it. Pour at least three times more.
- You also need to use large cookware.
- If the room is hot, it is more reasonable to put it in the refrigerator, otherwise an unpleasant odor may appear.
Swollen peas can be used with the water in which it was located, the soup will be thicker. But first, before soaking, you need to thoroughly rinse the product. Otherwise, the broth will become slimy, will resemble jelly, and after cooling it will turn into jelly. If you want to get a light soup, then you need to drain the water, and rinse the swollen peas again.
Where to start: peas and meat
Eternal doubts: what will cook faster, meat or peas? No one can answer this question. It happens that everything is cooked together, the meat is already moving away from the bones, and the peas cannot cook in any way. Sometimes it turns out the opposite. The peas instantly softened and dissolved, but the meat is still raw, it is tough, did not give a taste to the water. What to do?
It is wiser to start cooking with meat, bring it to half-cooked or almost ready, and then introduce peas. If they do not cook at the same time, then a piece can be taken out. Let the meat cool, remove the bones, chop, prepare the vegetables. While we are doing this, the peas are cooked to the desired state.
How many ribs did you cook?
Very often pea soups are cooked with smoked meats, usually these are ribs. And here the mistresses make the same mistake: add them very early. As a result, the whole taste leaves the meat. Smoked meats are ready to eat, they do not need to be boiled for an hour with peas, it is more reasonable to add after potatoes and boil for literally 15-20 minutes. Immediately cut into pieces of the desired size.
Sometimes smoked sausages are added to the soup for flavor, they need to be cooked even less. You can cut and fall asleep with frying vegetables, boil for a couple of minutes. So that the product shares its aroma, but does not lose its taste, it is better to let the soup brew after cooking. We just leave it on a warm stove for about twenty or half an hour.
Tomatoes added?
Any acid is detrimental to legumes. Most often, tomatoes or tomato paste are added to the soup. They are laid for the brightness of taste and a beautiful shade. This can be done, but only at the very end. If the peas are no longer hard, but not yet boiled, it’s worth the wait. Otherwise, he will remain in this state; he will definitely not be able to boil with acid.
If you want to add a tomato:
- use a small amount;
- first fry the pasta in a pan, simmer the tomatoes until soft;
- we put in a practically ready soup.
We don’t introduce a lot of tomato. He will interrupt the natural taste of peas. If fresh or canned tomatoes are used, it is advisable to remove the peel.
Frying or overcooking? No, passerovka!
Onions and carrots emphasize the taste of peas, nothing else needs to be added to the soup, but these vegetables require proper preparation. In no case do we fry them until brown. Even the tiniest scorch marks onions ruin the whole taste.
How to cook passer:
- Heat fat in a pan. It is better to use a mixture of vegetable and butter.
- Pour chopped onion, reduce heat to an average level, do not need to cook quickly, let the vegetable slowly reach transparency.
- After a minute, introduce grated or chopped carrots. Stir, cook another five minutes.
- As soon as the onion becomes transparent, turn off the stove.
Vegetables should have a pleasant aroma that emphasizes butter. The carrots will become a little brighter, the onion should appear golden, but not brown. We shift the vegetables to the pan about ten minutes before the end of cooking the soup, bring everything together until cooked.
The secrets of making pea soup
- If peas do not want to soften and fall apart, then you can add a small pinch of soda to it. This is done at the end, by no means at the beginning.
- You can soak peas with sodabut rinse thoroughly with clean and cold water before adding to the pan.
- If there is no time to prepare peas or they have not been soaked beforehand, then you can simply grind the product in a coffee grinder. It is not necessary to bring the flour to a state, just crush it slightly, and then fill it up in a saucepan. For this method, pure peas are used.
- What is the difference between soup puree? Naturally, consistency. Any pea soup can be chopped with a blender. And if you add home-made crackers, fresh dill when serving to the table, you get a real fairy tale.
