Sunday Feast № 25 | Pea Cashew Soup

The inspiration was a scene from "Best in Show", a mockumentary about a prestigious dog show: Sherri Ann Cabot: [Discussing her 80 year old husband who's 44 years her senior] Leslie and I have an amazing relationship and it's very physical, he still pushes all my buttons. People say 'oh but he's so much older than you' and you know what, I'm the one having to push him away. We have so much in common, we both love soup and snow peas, we love the outdoors, and talking and not talking. We could not talk or talk forever and still find things to not talk about. Soup. Snow peas. Peas. How about a pea soup? Luck had it that Bon Appétit July 2016 issue arrived earlier and it had a recipe for a more mealy pea soup, thanks to the cashews, that I adapted and dressed up with olive oil and pepper.

1⁄4 cup olive oil 2 large onions finely chopped 2 celery stalks chopped 4 garlic cloves thinly sliced or minced Kosher salt and black pepper to taste 2 cups raw cashews 2 tbsp brown sugar 1 tsp red pepper flakes 2 lb frozen green peas thawed 1-1 1⁄2 tbsp malt or white wine vinegar

Heat oil in large saucepan over medium-low heat. Add onions, celery, garlic, and cook, stirring often and adding splash of water if the bottom of pan gets too brown. Cook till the mixture is golden brown, 30-40 min. Season with salt and black pepper. Add cashews, sugar, red pepper flakes, and 3 cups of water, and bring the mixture to simmer. Cook until vegetables are very soft and losing their structure, 10-15 min, although in my case it took ~25 min. Let the saucepan stand off heat for 30 min, then add peas, and blend with hand handheld processor right in the saucepan to a purée until smooth adding water as you go, ~28 fl oz/30 ml. Go for velvety or close to velvety consistency. Stir vinegar into the soup, season with salt and black pepper, and warm over medium-low heat until heated through. Serve topped with scallions or potato chips or olive oil and freshly ground black pepper. Good warm and cool.