Thursday, April 17, 2008

Soup and Sammy

So I'm continuing to love my subscription to Everyday Food. Yesterday I made Green-Pea Soup with Cheddar-Scallion Panini from the March issue. It's very fast and very easy. The panino is basically a grilled cheese with scallions, and the soup is mostly pureed frozen peas and chicken broth.


By the way, I have a story about frozen peas. I recently caught an episode of Easy Entertaining with Michael Chiarello in which Michael was making a pea dish with frozen peas and, I suppose, felt the need to justify not using fresh peas. He told a story about how, when he was a young chef in France, he asked one of the older chefs how he got his pea sauce to be such a fresh, vibrant green. The chef took Michael over to the freezer and revealed a stash of frozen peas. "Monsieur, it is zee Birds Eye peas," said the chef. I'm paraphrasing here, but Michael definitely said that the French chef showed him "Birds Eye" peas. And you know what? They are pretty darn good.

That being said, the soup, while fresh and bright, is lacking a bit of oomph. I'm not sure what else to do with it, but I thought it might be good with some seasoned croutons floating on top. I served this for dinner but, because it's so light, I think it would make a better lunch. And the sandwich is fabulous. Be sure to use sharp cheddar.


The complete recipe is here. I followed it exactly except for adding extra lemon juice, salt, and pepper to the soup.

8 comments:

test it comm said...

That pea soup is nice and vibrantly green! It is always nice to have a sandwich to dip into soup.

Anonymous said...

that looks great..the panini sounds awesome!

Elle said...

That looks like a perfect lunch! It's so pretty, too.

Patsyk said...

I could really go for that panini! I may just have to add another magazine subscription to my mailbox... my mailman is going to hate me!

Deborah said...

I love the look of that soup, but the sandwich is what sounds super good to me!!

Madeline said...

The soup is gorgeous and the panini sounds so good. I've never thought of adding scallions, how delicious!

Lore said...

Your idea of adding some seasoned croutons on top sounds really good! The looks of that sandwich make my cravings take over :)

Anonymous said...

I love that magazine too. What a beautiful sandwhich and so easy too!