Dried green peas simmered with a sofrito of celery, carrot, bell pepper and garlic, with potato and bay leaf, and cumin and thyme through it. An hour and ten, four bowls.
Dried peas, and the timings prove it
The ingredient list said green peas, which in English means the fresh or frozen kind. The recipe then boils them, adds everything else, and simmers for another forty minutes.
Fresh peas cook in five minutes. Forty minutes of simmering turns them into a grey purée and takes the sweetness with them. Nothing in the method makes sense unless these are dried peas, and the recipe's own note confirms it by talking about soaking them overnight.
So the list now says dried green peas, arveja seca. If you want to make it with fresh or frozen ones, they go in at the end instead, once the potato is nearly soft.
The sofrito is where the flavour is
Steps two through four look like preparation and they are the actual cooking.
Bell pepper, celery, garlic and carrot softened properly in oil, then thyme, cumin and salt added and given a minute in the hot pan before the heat goes off. That minute matters: ground spices need fat and heat to release what they have, and thrown into a pot of water they mostly sit there.
Rushed, this soup tastes of boiled peas. Done properly it tastes of the sofrito, which is the point.
Water is the missing quantity
The ingredient list says water with no amount, which is a gap the recipe never fills.
The honest answer is that it depends on the pot and how long it cooks. Cover the peas by about two fingers to start with, and top it up as they absorb it and it evaporates. Dried peas drink a surprising amount over an hour.
Add it hot. Cold water dropped into a simmering pot stops the cooking while it comes back up.
The cilantro goes in last
The final step stirs finely chopped cilantro in and takes the pot straight off the heat, and that order is deliberate.
Cilantro is aroma more than flavour, and aroma boils off in the first minute. Added at the end it is still green and still smells of itself; added at the start it contributes nothing and turns the soup a duller colour.
Keep a little back to scatter on the bowls.
More soups
- Chicken and rice soup — with rice instead.
- White bean soup — the other pulse.
- Lentil burgers — another use for a pulse.
- Colombian white rice — on the side.
Sopa de Arveja FAQ
Dried, which is what the timings are built around. The recipe simmers them for the best part of an hour, and fresh or frozen peas turn to mush and go grey in a fraction of that.
Yes, but they go in near the end rather than at the start. They cook in five to eight minutes, so add them once the potato is nearly soft.
Not strictly, but it cuts the cooking time considerably and gives a more even result. Overnight in cold water.
The recipe never says, because it depends on the pot. Cover the peas by two fingers to start and top it up as they drink it, using hot water so the pot does not drop off the boil.
Probably the sofrito was rushed. Softening the celery, carrot, bell pepper and garlic properly before they go in the pot is where most of the flavour comes from, and the cumin and thyme need that minute in the hot oil to open up.
Not in this version, which keeps everything in pieces. Blending half of it and stirring it back gives you body without losing the texture, if you want both.
📖 Recipe
Ingredients
- 250 g dried green peas (arveja seca; see the notes if you are using fresh or frozen)
- 1 small stalk of celery
- 1 carrot
- Oil
- 1 teaspoon thyme
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- Cilantro (to finish)
- 1 large potato
- 1 bay leaf
- 2 garlic cloves
- ½ red bell pepper
- ½ onion
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Water (enough to cover the peas by two fingers, topped up as it cooks)
Notas
- Dried peas are what this recipe is built around, and they take the full hour. Soaking them overnight cuts that down considerably and gives a more even result.
- Fresh or frozen peas are a different thing entirely. They cook in five to eight minutes, so they go in near the end rather than at the start; forty minutes turns them to mush and the soup grey.
- Water is the one quantity the recipe never gives, because it depends on the pot. Cover the peas by two fingers to start and top it up as they drink it. Adding it hot keeps the pot at temperature.
- The cilantro goes in at the very end. Boiled it contributes nothing.
Instructions
- Rinse the peas thoroughly and put them on to boil in water that covers them by two fingers.
- Finely chop the bell pepper, the celery and the garlic. Peel the carrot and dice it small.
- In a skillet, heat some oil and soften the chopped vegetables.
- Add the thyme, the cumin and a pinch of salt to the skillet and cook for another minute. Take it off the heat.
- Peel the potato and cut it into small pieces.
- Tip the sofrito into the pot with the peas, along with the potato and the bay leaf. Add more water if it needs it and simmer for about 40 minutes, until everything is soft. Stir now and then.
- Once it is all soft, taste it, season with salt and pepper, stir in the finely chopped cilantro and serve straight away.
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