Batchelors Mushy Original Processed Peas

I was down my local convenience store when I saw this tin and I almost burst into tears at how delicious the cover art work made the contents look, I simply had to buy!

So, what’s inside the tin? I bet it’s going to be incredible!

Not really.

Apart from the ‘robust’ physical nature of the contents and aside from the downright radioactive green colour another thing that troubles me is the smell: slightly …um…it smells like it looks…probably.

…and how’s it taste?

Actually no where near as bad as it smells. Slightly umami, but it doesn’t really taste like peas though, more like slightly salty wallpaper paste. Yum!

So on what culinary walk am I going to take my Mushy on? Well, in a moment of boredom while purchasing Mr Mushy I also bought some Scottish Professional Football League cards:

And only look who’s inside!

It’s some footballers you’ve never heard of! Scott Fox of Partick Thistle and Andy Robertson of Dundee United!

And for today’s menu I’m going to blow Scott and Andy’s mind with a delicious pea, mint and ham soup because top flight international footballers love pea, mint and ham soup. FACT!

I start by assembling my ingredients of 1/2 vegetable stock cube, half a lemon, mint, tarragon (not in shot).

The first step is to add the Mushy to a saucepan with about 1 tbsp of olive oil and soften before adding the mint, stock cube and lemon and about 1/2 pint water:

And I cook this mixture until it has reduced in volume by about 30% which takes around 20 minutes:

I have a taste….maybe a bit too tart with the lemon, but not at all unpleasant and I think the addition of some cream at the end will probably balance out some of that acidity. It still doesn’t taste of peas though, but world class footballers Andy and Scott won’t mind that too much….

Because Andy and Scott love Bacon!

And after grilling my bacon for around 4 minutes on each side so that it is ultra crispy I serve my soup with some fresh single cream and a slice of delicious brown bread:

….and how does it taste?

Andy and Scott, who will no doubt be playing for Real Madrid or some other world class side really soon, would be well impressed! While the dish may be a tad acidic the addition of cream makes it super smooth and the bacon adds a nice salty contrast; the addition of mint adds a nice aroma to the other ingredients, especially the bacon, which was unexpected. The soup also has kept that umami depth which I detected in the initial tasting. Overall, I judge this a fairly solid pass 🙂

But what do you think? Have you tried Mushy peas and what did you do with them? Have you tried any other food combinations that might work with mint or bacon? Even if you haven’t, there’s the Facebook page for you to hang out on and even a Twitter account where I can keep you all updated and stuff. I even occasionally write over a Huffpost.