FRENCH GREEN PEA SOUP.

This soup is made without meat. Put into a soup-pot four quarts of
shelled green peas, two large onions sliced, a handful of leaves of
sweet marjoram shred from the stalks, or a handful of sweet basil; or a
mixed handful of both—also, if you like it, a handful of green mint.
Add four quarts of water, and boil the whole slowly till all the peas
are entirely to pieces. Then take off the pot, and mash the peas well
against its sides to extract from them all their flavour. Afterward
strain off the liquid into a clean pot, and add to it a tea-cup full of
the juice of spinach, which you must prepare, while the soup is
boiling, by pounding some spinach in a mortar. This will give the soup
a fine green colour. Then put in a quarter of a pound of the best fresh
butter rolled whole in flour; and add a pint and a half more of shelled
young peas. If you wish the soup very thick, you may allow a quart of
the additional peas. Season it with a very little salt and cayenne; put
it again over the fire, and boil it till the last peas are quite soft,
but not till they go to pieces.

Have ready in a tureen two or three slices of toasted bread cut into
small squares or dice, and pour the soup on it.

This soup, if properly made, will be found excellent, notwithstanding
the absence of meat. It is convenient for fast days; and in the
country, where vegetables can be obtained from the garden, the expense
will be very trifling. What is left may be warmed for the next day.