Recipe #11 – Soupe de quaresme

Soupe de quaresme or Lenten Sops is a dish that resembles a pea soup served over toast.  Flavored with cumin, wine and saffron it is a nice savory warming dish.

The original recipe for this dish is as follows…

Souppe de quaresme. Prenez puree de pois et commin et saffren en poure, mettez en demi quarte de puree et un hanap de vin et, se c’est vergus, sen mettez mains, du sel a point ; faictez boullir, sy le jettez sur les souppes, bien chaudement

Scully’s translates the recipe into this…

Lenten Sops. Get pea puree, powdered cumin and saffron; put two quarts of puree and a goblet of wine – and if you use verjuice, put in less; some salt, judiciously. Boil. Pour very hot over the sops.

Here is how I made the dish….

I gathered together the ingredients for the dish.  The bread for the sops is french bread. I chose to use a white wine rather than red as I didn’t want to muddy the bright color or overwhelm the flavor. I used frozen peas to make the pea puree.  The saffron was steeped in a small amount of the white wine.

 

 

 

 

 

I ran the peas through a food processor with enough water to make a fairly smooth puree.  Once the pea puree is smooth I put it on to boil along with the white wine, saffron, cumin and salt. This was brought to a low boil and simmered for about 15 minutes. While is was simmering I toasted the french bread. The recipe did not say that it was toasted or untoasted but I decided I wanted the difference in texture.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Verdict….

Thick creamy and full of flavor. I like this dish even though I am not a big fan of peas. I do think if I make this again I will add a bit more wine for both flavor and to make it a bit thinner.