Lettuce Eat Soup

I sometimes call this soup the mystery ingredient soup and ask guests to guess what the ingredients are. No one guesses lettuce. But lettuce it is. And delicious and just right for the moment when spring peas and lettuce are ripe and ready from the garden. The children love to pop open the pods and discover the peas inside and watch the creme fraiche thicken over time. My son loves to pick the mint from the garden and usually chops chives too, which can make another tasty garnish for this light and tasty soup which heralds the beginning of summer and goodness from the garden abundant enough to make a meal.

Ingredients:

• 2 T. unsalted butter
• drizzle olive oil
• 1 large onion, diced
• 3 cups light chicken stock (water or vegetable stock works too)
• 11/2 lbs baby peas
• 1 head romaine lettuce
• thyme
• salt and pepper
• fresh mint and creme fraiche

Directions:

1. Warm pan.
2. Melt butter.
3. Drizzle olive oil.
4. Saute onions.
5. Add peas, cook for ten minutes or so to soften peas.
6. Add lettuce, allow to wilt.
7. Add thyme, let fragrance rise.
8. Add a smidge of salt.
9. Add stock.
10. Puree.
11. Add salt and pepper to taste.
12. Just before serving, garnish with creme fraiche and mint spring.

Enjoy!

For a little fingerplay about peas, click through.

Lisa Boisvert Mackenzie is the Editor and Publisher of The Wonder of Childhood and has spent the past fifteen years with one of her own children in early childhood (under seven years of age.)  She was blessed with a wondrous, rhythmic and outdoor childhood on the coast of Maine. Lisa has worked with children and their families for the past twenty two years, initially as a homebirth midwife. Lisa’s home based program The Children’s Garden began twelve years ago on a remote tropical island in the Pacific Ocean. Lisa’s current focus is on supporting parents of very young children and exploring the needs of boys in relationship to the Waldorf curriculum and ways of implementing support for those needs within the Waldorf curriculum. She lives with her family in Vermont. Lisa blogs at Celebrate the Rhythm of Life and hosts a discussion groups for parents of young children here.

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