Yummy Pea & Lettuce Soup

I love a mug of hot soup for lunch on a cold day - here's one I made today, adapted from Cyndi O'Meara's wonderful cookbook, "Changing Habits, Changing Lives". I needed a recipe to use up all those lettuces in my fridge - it's been so cold, wet and miserable that salads aren't going down too well here, so soup is the next best thing! I know, lettuce in soup sounds weird, but this is really yummy. Try it!

(Note: I make this in my Thermomix, but you can make it in a saucepan, then puree using a blender or hand-held processor.)

1. Place in Thermomix bowl and chop for 5 seconds, speed 5 (or chop by hand):
- 2-3 cloves garlic
- 1 onion, halved

(I actually peel my garlic in the Thermomix too, especially when they're small cloves, by throwing in the unpeeled cloves and knocking them about on reverse, speed 5, for 5 seconds. You can just pick out the papery skin, or add some water and it will float to the top, and you can scoop it off then tip out the water!)

2. Saute onion and garlic with oil for 3 minutes, 100 degrees, speed 1:
- 2 Tblspns olive or macadamia oil

3. Add vegetables, and chop for 5 seconds speed 5, using spatula to push them down to the blades:
- 1 potato, quartered
- 1 carrot, quartered
- 1 lettuce, well washed and separated
- 300g frozen or fresh peas
- a handful of fresh chives
- a few sprigs of parsley or coriander (opt.)

4. Add and cook for 20 minutes, 100 degrees, speed 1:
- 1 Tblspn vegetable stock concentrate (or vege stock powder such as Massel)
- 750g water

(If chopping veges by hand and cooking in saucepan, simmer soup for about 30 minutes. Because the veges are chopped so fine in the Thermomix it needs less cooking time.)

5. Slowly turn speed dial to speed 8 and blend soup for 30 seconds (or blend in blender or with hand-held processor).

6. Add and mix in briefly:
- 2 Tblspns lemon juice
- 150g cup sour cream substitute (or real sour cream or natural yoghurt)