A pea soup in under thirty minutes is only possible if you skip the soaking. With 500 g of frozen peas in the mixing bowl, the soup is ready faster than any dried split pea could ever turn tender, and it tastes noticeably fresher.
We have been making this version for years, whenever three conditions line up: cold flat, rumbling stomach, empty fridge. Frozen peas live permanently in our freezer, a bunch of mint from the pot on the windowsill, a shallot, a splash of white wine, a leftover bit of double cream. That is all it takes. The mint here is not a garnish. It turns a straightforward pea soup into something we are happy to serve to guests who have tried everything.
Pea and Mint Soup with the Thermomix®
Ingredients 0 / 11 ✓
- 2 piece shallots
- 15 g olive oil
- 500 g peas frozen
- 50 g white wine
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp white pepper
- 600 g vegetable stock
- 1 bunch mint
- 150 g double cream
- 30 g crème fraîche
- 10 g lime juice
Instructions 0 / 7
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1
Chop the shallots.
Peel the shallots, place them in the mixing bowl and chop for 3 sec / speed 5, then scrape down with the spatula.
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2
Sweat the shallots.
Add the olive oil and cook for 3 min / reverse direction / speed 1.
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3
Bring the soup to the boil.
Add 400 g of the peas, the white wine, salt, pepper and stock and cook for 10 min / 100°C / speed 1.
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4
Prepare the mint. Meanwhile, wash the mint and pat it dry, pick the leaves from the stalks and set a few aside for garnish.
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5
Blend the soup.
Add the mint, whipping cream, crème fraîche and lime juice to the mixing bowl and blend for 50 sec / speed 10.
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6
Warm the remaining peas.
Add the remaining peas and heat for 4 min / 90°C / reverse direction / speed 1.
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7
Serve. Serve scattered with the reserved mint leaves.
Video
Nutrition per serving
Why this pea soup in the Thermomix® comes together so quickly
Three technical points carry the recipe and explain why dried split peas are no longer worth the effort for us.
- Frozen peas are already blanched. Frozen peas are briefly blanched immediately after harvest and then blast-frozen. That means they are biologically fully cooked and only need heat to warm through. 10 minutes at 100°C is enough to soften them for blending.
- Chop the shallots first, then sweat them. We chop the two shallots for 3 sec / speed 5 in the dry mixing bowl. Only then do we add the olive oil and cook for 3 min / reverse direction / speed 1 over gentle heat. The reverse direction at speed 1 stirs without breaking down the fine shallot pieces further, so they stay intact as a flavour base.
- Blend at speed 10 for 50 seconds. This is where the soup transforms from a broth with peas floating in it into a proper pea cream soup. 50 sec / speed 10 draws a silky consistency out of the 400 g of cooked peas, mint, double cream, crème fraîche and lime juice that we could never achieve with a hand blender in a pot.
The trick with the split peas
The recipe says: cook 400 g of peas with the wine, salt, pepper and 600 g of stock, then blend. The remaining 100 g of peas only go in right at the end and are warmed through for 4 min / 90°C / reverse direction / speed 1. That is exactly the step we used to skip in the early days, and it was a mistake.
A pure blended soup is dull in the mouth. The whole peas we stir in at the end add texture and a clear pea flavour on top, because they have not been simmering for 10 minutes and losing their freshness. Anyone who likes soups with a bit of chew can add 150 g instead of 100 g at the end. The important thing is reverse direction and speed 1 for this second heat phase, otherwise the peas get blended again.
Mint is not a garnish here
Peas are naturally sweet. Without a counterpoint the soup quickly becomes flat and bland. A bunch of fresh mint, washed and picked, goes into the mixing bowl together with the double cream and crème fraîche and is blended with the cooked peas for 50 seconds at speed 10. This all happens in the same mixing bowl without any pouring or transferring, and that is exactly why we need the Thermomix® here. A freestanding blender would not survive the hot soup intact, and a hand blender cannot break down the fine mint leaves finely enough.
If you have only ever used mint with roast lamb or in tea, do not be put off. In this quantity it does not taste like tea at all, but rather like a second seasoning layer alongside the salt and pepper. The lime juice at the end rounds everything off. Acid combined with the volatile oils from the mint cuts through the sweetness of the peas without making the soup taste sour.
What used to go wrong for us
The soup turned grey-green instead of fresh green
When we cooked all the peas from the start, they lost their fresh colour after 10 minutes at 100°C. The chlorophyll oxidises and the soup turns dull.
Our fix: We split the 500 g into 400 g for cooking and 100 g to warm through at the end. The 100 g at the end look fresh and green, they float through the soup and rescue the colour.
The mint turned bitter
In our first attempt we added the mint straight away with the wine and cooked it for 10 minutes. The result was bitter and harsh at the same time. Mint contains volatile oils that break down with prolonged heat and leave a medicinal aftertaste.
Our fix: Mint goes in right at the very end, blended briefly, done. The 50 seconds at speed 10 breaks up the leaves, but they do not cook longer than necessary.
The blended soup was too thin
600 g of stock is the right amount in the standard version. But if you only have a few leaves of mint instead of a full bunch, or you leave out the cream, the soup turns watery.
Our fix: The double cream and crème fraîche add not only flavour but body. 150 g of double cream plus 30 g of crème fraîche ensure the blend coats the back of a spoon. If you want it even thicker, replace 100 g of stock with one peeled floury potato and cook it with the 400 g of peas. That gives extra body without any more cream.
With bacon, dried peas or as a summer version
- With potato instead of flour. Add 1 floury potato (about 100 g) to the 400 g of peas and cook together. Thickens the soup without extra cream and makes it more of an everyday dish.
- With ginger. Chop a 2 cm piece of ginger together with the shallots. It works surprisingly well with the mint and adds a light citrus bite.
- With prawns. Quickly pan-fry 8 raw prawns and rest them on top of the finished soup. A weekday soup becomes a starter for guests.
- Vegan. Replace the double cream with oat cream and the crème fraîche with soya cream. Works without any loss of flavour, because the mint and lime juice carry the creamy profile.
- With crispy bacon on top. Fry 80 g of diced bacon until crispy in a pan and scatter over the finished soup. Salty, crunchy and rich against the sweet, creamy base.
Bread, sausages or croutons alongside the soup
We like to serve the pea soup with a slice of toasted spelt baguette from the Thermomix®, a little olive oil and coarse salt on the side. For something more substantial, serve the soup as a starter before a hearty main, or combine it with a classic potato soup as a second soup course. A soup-night spread would not be complete without our pumpkin soup from the Thermomix® either.
For the stock we prefer our homemade vegetable paste, because it contains no yeast extract and delivers exactly the seasoning we need. A good alternative is our spice paste for meat stock when you want the soup to taste a little more robust.
3 days in the fridge, frozen for 3 months
In the fridge, the finished soup keeps for 3 days in a sealed glass container. When reheating, we stir in 1 tbsp of water or stock, because the blended soup thickens as it sits and will be denser the next day than when freshly made.
Freezing works, but with one compromise. Cream-based soups can separate on thawing, with the fat rising to the top. We therefore freeze only the blended base without the double cream and crème fraîche, and stir both in freshly after defrosting. The base keeps in the freezer for 3 months. Defrost overnight in the fridge, then reheat in a pot and add the double cream and crème fraîche.
Reheating directly in the mixing bowl also works: 4 min / 90°C / reverse direction / speed 1, and the soup is ready to serve again without the blend catching on the bottom.
How other recipes approach it
Goes well with: bacon.
Most Thermomix® pea soup recipes either rely on dried split peas with 60 minutes of cooking time or go for a hearty version with bacon and sausages. Others stay purely creamy with potato as a thickener and use only frozen peas and stock. What is almost always missing from the top results: a clear aromatic counterpoint. The natural sweetness of the peas is rarely balanced, at most softened with cream. We take a different approach. Instead of a pure cream soup, we work with split peas for texture and fresh mint plus lime juice as the counterbalance. That turns a standard winter dish into a soup we are happy to serve in summer too.
More soups from our Thermomix® repertoire: pumpkin soup, goulash soup, potato soup, and all our soup recipes.
