In winter-time you can make a nice soup by taking dried peas, soaking them overnight, and using them as you would fresh.
All pea soup should have dropped in it just before serving what are called croutons; that is, small, even cubes of bread toasted to a nice brown in the oven, or put in a frying-pan with a tiny bit of butter, and browned.
Cream of Lima Beans
1 pint of fresh or canned beans, or those which have been soaked.
Use milk, water, thickening, and seasoning as before. Add a slice of onion, as these beans have little taste, and beat the yolk of an egg and stir in quickly, after you have taken the soup from the fire, just before you strain it for the second time.
Cream of Potato
This is one of the best and most delicate soups.
5 freshly boiled potatoes. 1 slice of onion. 1 quart of hot milk. 1 small teaspoonful of salt. 1 teaspoonful chopped parsley.
This soup has no water in it, because that which has had potatoes boiled in it is always spoiled for anything else and must always be thrown away. This is why you must take a quart of milk instead of a pint. There is no thickening in the soup, because the potatoes will thicken it themselves. Put the parsley in at the very last, after the soup is in the tureen.
The yolk of an egg beaten and put in before the second straining is nice sometimes in this soup, but not necessary.