Pea and coconut cream

This pea and coconut cream recipe is perfect for those days when you don't have much time to prepare lunch or dinner, but you don't want to give up a healthy and delicious dish. A vegan soup full of flavor that, just as it is, is delicious, but that allows endless adaptations to suit everyone's taste.

To prepare it quickly, choosing the container in which you are going to cook it is the most important thing. Undoubtedly, the ideal is to use a deep utensil, with high walls and a wide base, which heats up quickly and maintains the temperature like a champion. And for this, there is no better option than the Le Creuset iron cocotte .

You will see that in no time at all you have a tasty and delicate cream ready, which I am sure will become one of your favorite dishes, one of those that stays in your personal recipe book.

Prepare the cocotte, and let's go for the recipe!

Round Cocotte Evolution Le Creuset from 18 to 34 cm

Ingredients

• 1 bunch of chives
• 1 tsp olive or coconut oil
• 1 kg of frozen peas
• 750 ml of water*
• 1 400ml can coconut milk, saving a little of the cream to drizzle on top
• 1 tbsp vegetable bouillon powder or ½ bouillon cube*
• 1 large bunch of basil
• The juice of 1 lime
• extra virgin olive oil

*Recipe calls for water and vegetable bouillon concentrate powder or cubes. If you have mild chicken or vegetable broth, you can use that instead of the water and concentrate.

Elaboration

1. Bring the water to a boil. To do it in the fastest way, you can do it in your teapot or in your kettle.
2. Heat your round Le Creuset cocotte over medium-low heat with the lid on.
3. Chop the spring onion quite finely and add it to the cocotte with the coconut or olive oil, and cook for 4 minutes, until soft.
4. Add the peas to the cocotte and stir lightly to mix with the chives.
5. Immediately add the coconut milk (remember to reserve a little to add it when serving the dish), the powdered or cubed broth and the boiling water. Replace the lid and wait for it to start boiling again.
6. When it boils, cook slowly over medium heat for 6 minutes, until the peas are cooked. If you notice that it boils more strongly, lower the power of the fire, so that it boils gently.
7. Remove from heat. Add most of the basil, stem and all, and the juice of the lime and use a mixer (with the guard on the blades) to beat the soup until extra smooth.
8. Spread the cream with a ladle on plates or in bowls , adding a drizzle of olive oil and a few basil leaves.
9. Pour in some of the previously reserved coconut cream and stir gently, spreading it through the soup.

Grades

• The recipe calls for chives (spring onion), but you can use the variety of onion that you like best. Depending on the one you use, it may take a little longer for it to be well poached.
• Frozen peas can always be found in your usual store. But you can take advantage when spring arrives, to make it with fresh peas, since they are in season.
• If you make the vegetable broth concentrate at home, you can use it in the same amount as indicated in the recipe. Or use a mild vegetable or chicken broth.
• You can serve the soup in deep plates or bowls, but you can also present it in tureens or mini cocottes .
• As I told you at the beginning of the post, you can version this recipe however you like. Use mint instead of basil (to a lesser extent so it doesn't dominate its flavour), add some cooked chickpeas and a few less peas, try almond milk or a little sesame oil... You're sure to be right!
• In addition to how we indicate in the recipe, you can dress the cream before serving it in many other ways:
• with coarsely chopped toasted almonds and a few mint leaves,
• with a few unmashed cooked peas and a little lemon or lime zest,
• with a few sprigs of dill and a drizzle of olive or slightly spicy oil,
• or simply sprinkling some ground mixed pepper on top.

Round Cocotte Evolution Le Creuset from 18 to 34 cm