Spring pea soup with rhubarb

Directions

1. Pea soup with coconut
2. Heat the olive oil over medium-high heat in a medium soup pot. Add the onion, leek, and ginger stir to coat with oil, then cover and cook over medium for about 5 minutes until soft. You want them to "sweat" but you don't want them to get brown.
3. Add in the stock and bring to a simmer (if you like a thicker soup, you could also throw in a chopped potato at this point and simmer it until tender. Once the potato is ready you would add the peas). Then, stir in the peas and cook until the peas are just tender. This goes quickly, just a couple minutes. Then take off the heat.
4. Puree the soup in a couple of batches in a blender until quite smooth (and quite green!). Return the soup to the pot and stir in the coconut milk. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
5. Spoon the soup into bowls, swirl in a dollop of rhubarb compote and sprinkle generously with chopped fresh mint. I served this soup warm, but I should think it could also be quite good chilled though if you go for chilled you may need to re-blend it to keep the coconut emulsified.

1. Rhubarb sauce
2. Combine the rhubarb, water and sugar in a small saucepan. Cover and cook over low heat until the rhubarb is falling apart and cooked down into a sauce, this takes around 15 minutes.
3. Taste and season with salt and pepper as desired. You could also try stirring in a pinch of coriander. Serve dolloped atop the pea soup.