Fennel Soup with Spinach and Peas

Here we roast the fennel for flavor. Adding green peas (frozen or fresh), creamy coconut milk, and a little lemon juice, makes for an easy, soothing, and flavorful soup. This is perfect cold or hot! Garnish with pea shoots. This also makes a wonderful sauce for fish, scallops, shrimp, or mussels. This serves 4

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil 

• 2 fennel bulbs

• 1 small onion

• 4 garlic cloves, peeled

• Salt and pepper to taste

• 6 cups vegetable stock 

• 1 cup peas, frozen or fresh 

• 1 can full-fat coconut milk

• Juice of ½ lemon

• Handful baby spinach

• Handful fresh parsley

• Fennel fronds for garnish

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Trim the stem and tips away from the fennel bulb, saving some frond for garnish. Cut fennel into thin wedges.  The onion can be cut the same way, about the same size.  Place fennel and onions in a roasting tray with the oil and garlic cloves and season with salt and black pepper. Roast for 25-30 minutes, until the fennel is soft. 

Bring the vegetable stock to a boil in a large saucepan. Add the roasted fennel, onion, and garlic, then the peas, and simmer for 5 minutes.

Remove from the heat and use a hand blender, food processor, or blender to blitz to a smooth purée (keep going for a minute or two, this needs to be really smooth), then add the coconut milk, lemon juice, spinach, and parsley and blitz again. 

Taste and add more salt or pepper if required.