This soup is made without meat. Put into a soup-pot four quarts of
shelled green peas, two large onions sliced, a handful of leaves
of sweet marjoram shred from the stalks, or a handful of sweet
basil; or a mixed handful of both--also, if you like it, a handful
of green mint. Add four quarts of water, and boil the whole slowly
till all the peas are entirely to pieces. Then take off the pot,
and mash the peas well against its sides to extract from them all
their flavour. Afterward strain off the liquid into a clean pot,
and add to it a tea-cup full of the juice of spinach, which you
must prepare, while the soup is boiling, by pounding some spinach
in a mortar. This will give the soup a fine green colour. Then put
in a quarter of a pound of the best fresh butter rolled whole in
flour; and add a pint and a half more of shelled young peas. If
you wish the soup very thick, you may allow a quart of the
additional peas. Season it with a very little salt and cayenne;
put it again over the fire, and boil it till the last peas are
quite soft, but not till they go to pieces.
Have ready in a tureen two or three slices of toasted bread cut
into small squares or dice, and pour the soup on it.
This soup, if properly made, will be found excellent,
notwithstanding the absence of meat. It is convenient for fast
days; and in the country, where vegetables can be obtained from
the garden, the expense will be very trifling. What is left may be
warmed for the next day.