Spring Pea Soup with Shrimp Dumplings

This elegant soup is inspired by a classic Chinese dish, shrimp and snow peas, but the preparation will please any frugal New Englander. Every ingredient is fully consumed and nothing is wasted. You make a broth with shrimp and some aromatics like leek, lemon, garlic, and carrot, then put those ingredients back in the soup with the peas and some onion. The cooked shrimp then gets rolled into dumplings, with some flour, chives, egg, and the zest of the lemon. It’s healthful, colorful, and very flavorful, an elegant lunch entree or dinner party starter.

Spring Pea Soup with Shrimp Dumplings

Total time: 1 hour, 20 minutes Hands-on time: 1 hour Makes: 8 servings

Ingredients

For the soup:

• 1/2 lemon
• 6 cups water
• 2 medium carrots, peeled and chopped
• 1 leek, white and pale green part only, thinly sliced
• 3 stems parsley
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt, plus more to taste
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more to taste
• 1 pound unpeeled, deveined shrimp (small or medium size)
• 3 1/2 tablespoons salted butter
• 1 medium sweet onion, such as Vidalia, diced
• 1 pound frozen peas
• 2 tablespoons heavy cream (optional)
• Garnish: minced chives

For the shrimp dumplings:

• 2 tablespoons chopped chives
• 1 egg
• 3 to 4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper

Instructions:

Use a microplane or other grater to zest the lemon half. Set the zest aside for the dumplings. Make the soup: Fill a 3-to 4-quart pot with 7 cups water and set over high heat. Add the lemon half, carrots, leek, parsley, salt, and pepper and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer 10 minutes.

Use a slotted spoon to remove all the vegetables from the pot and transfer to a bowl. Discard the lemon and parsley. Add the shrimp to the simmering stock. Stir, then turn off  the heat; let the shrimp sit in the hot liquid for 10 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the shrimp to a colander and briefly run under cold water to cool. Peel the shrimp, discarding the shells. Set the meat and stock aside. In 4- to 5-quart pot, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the onions and the reserved carrot-leek mixture and cook, stirring often, until the onions are translucent and fragrant, about 6 minutes.

Add 4 cups of the shrimp stock and increase heat to high (reserve the remaining stock). Bring to a simmer, then add peas and cook just until tender, about 5 minutes.

Remove the soup from the heat and puree in batches in a blender until smooth (this can take a couple of minutes per batch). For an extra-smooth texture, run the soup through a fine-mesh sieve to strain out any roughage from the pea skins. Return the soup to a clean pot, stir in the cream, if using, and keep over very low heat. Now make the dumplings: First, bring the remaining shrimp stock to a simmer. In the bowl of a food processor, combine the cooked shrimp, reserved lemon zest, chives, egg, flour, salt and pepper. Pulse 10 to 15 times until finely chopped. If the mixture seems very wet, add the additional tablespoon flour and pulse to combine.

Using floured hands, roll the dough into 1-inch balls. Drop the balls, a few at a time, into the simmering stock and cook until they float the top, 1 to 2 minutes.

To serve, ladle some of the pea soup into a shallow bowl, then top with 3 or 4 dumplings. Garnish with minced chives. Serve hot.

Happy spring!