Instructions: 200 OC = 400 oF; 230 oC = 450 oF; 250 oC = 475 oF; 2.5 cm = 1 inch)

The Story, Birgid Allen:
"(...) This is really a late spring soup, for that time when nothing yet seems to be properly in season and when cold winds blight the beginning of summer and give one unseasonable longings for warm, comforting soups.

This is the time to forget asparagus and turn back to root vegetables, such as the new, sharp-tasting young turnips in their delicately purple-flushed white skins. These go well with the winter and spring perennial, the bulbous Florentine fennel with its faintly aniseed-like taste.

The rich, lemony stock, the sharp sorrel and garlicky tomato provide a good background for the pungency of the young turnips and fennel. It is worth boiling a chicken with a cut lemon inside it to produce the right rich, strong broth to pull this soup together, remembering that it is easily a meal in itself. (...)"

The Recipe

The day before making this soup, place a cut-up lemon inside your chicken and boil for just over 1 hour (for a 1.35 kg/3 pounder), adding a peeled onion and carrot, black peppercorns and sea salt to the water. Strain off the broth and refrigerate it overnight.

Soak the split peas either overnight or for several hours, then boil them in plenty of unsalted water for 30 minutes to 1 hour until they are soft.

The first 10 minutes of boiling should always be fast and uncovered; the rest may be a steady simmer with the lid on.

Meanwhile, peel the onions and turnips, and scrape the carrots and fennel; chop them all into small dice and soften them for 15 minutes in olive oil in a heavy, covered pan.

Crush the garlic in a mortar with a little sea salt and add it to the vegetables with the tomatoes and the thyme or marjoram, raising the heat a little and cooking uncovered for 5-20 minutes while breaking up the tomatoes with a wooden spoon.

Then add the drained split peas, the skimmed stock and the washed and torn-up sorrel leaves. (Spinach will do, but it will not contribute such an interestingly acidic flavour.)

Bring to the boil, simmer for 30 minutes, cool and serve. Add more salt ift he split peas seem to demand it, but do not liquidize the soup unless you want their taste to be dominant.

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