Easy Pea Soup with Bacon and Vegetables

Creamy pea soup with bacon, made with frozen peas, leeks, celery and potato for a thick, silky bowl that comes together in under 40 minutes. The crispy bacon fat builds a savoury base, and a spoon of sour cream blends in for a smooth finish without any cream.

This pea and bacon soup turns a bag of frozen peas into a thick, comforting bowl. You fry diced bacon until crisp, then sweat onion, leeks and celery in the bacon fat before adding potato, peas and stock to simmer. A quick blend with an immersion blender and a stir of sour cream gives it a silky finish. It is cheap to make, filling enough for a main meal, and scales up easily for several days of lunches.

Why You'll Love This Pea and Bacon Soup

Ingredients for Creamy Pea Soup with Frozen Peas

How to Make Pea Soup from Frozen Peas

1. Step 1: Heat the olive oil in a large soup pot over medium heat. Add the diced bacon and fry until crisp and golden. Lift it out with a slotted spoon and set aside, leaving all the bacon fat behind in the pot.

2. Step 2: Add the diced onion to the bacon fat and fry for 2 minutes. Stir in the sliced leeks and celery and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, until they start to soften. Add the minced garlic and cook for 1 minute more.

3. Step 3: Tip in the potato cubes and the thawed peas, then stir well so everything is coated in the fat. Add a good grind of black pepper and just a pinch of salt — keep it light at this stage, since salted stock is easy to over-salt, and it is better to adjust at the end.

4. Step 4: Pour in the chicken stock and bring to the boil, then lower the heat to medium-low. Simmer until the potatoes are tender when pierced with a fork. Do not overcook it, or the peas lose their bright green colour. Blend the soup smooth with an immersion blender or in a food processor, adding a splash more stock if it needs loosening. Taste and adjust the salt, then stir in the sour cream. Serve topped with the crispy bacon.

How to Serve and Store This Pea and Bacon Soup

Serve this pea soup with bacon hot, with the crispy bacon scattered over the top and a little chopped parsley if you have it. A grind of black pepper and a thin swirl of sour cream make it look the part. Crusty bread or a soft roll on the side turns it into a proper meal, and it works as a starter in smaller bowls too.

To store, let the soup cool, then keep it in the fridge for up to four days in a sealed container. If you know you are batch cooking, leave the sour cream out of the pot and stir it through each portion as you reheat — the soup keeps better and reheats more cleanly without dairy already mixed in. Warm pea soup with bacon gently on the hob, adding a splash of stock or water to loosen it, as it thickens as it sits. It freezes well too, for up to three months; again, freeze it without the sour cream and add that fresh when you serve.

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How Much Does This Pea and Bacon Soup Cost to Make?

This is a cheap soup wherever you make it, and the maths backs that up. The main ingredient, frozen peas, is one of the most affordable vegetables on the shelf.

• In Ireland, bacon offcuts run around €2.99/kg at Aldi, and a 600g bag of frozen peas is roughly €1.20, so a full pot of this pea and vegetable soup comes in at about €4.50 total, or around €0.75 per serving for six.
• In the UK, with frozen peas at roughly £1.19 to £1.90/kg at Tesco and bacon offcuts cheap at most supermarkets, the whole dish lands near £4.00, or about £0.65 a bowl.
• In the USA, where Aldi sells frozen peas for a little over a dollar a bag, expect close to $5.50 total, or around $0.90 per serving.
• In Australia, with frozen peas about AUD $3 per kg and bacon a touch dearer, the pot works out near AUD $8.00, or about $1.30 a serving.
• And in Poland, where frozen peas and bacon are both inexpensive, it comes in around 18 PLN total, roughly 3 PLN per bowl. Wherever you shop, this stays a genuinely cheap pea and bacon soup, and buying frozen peas in bulk brings the cost down even further

Top Tips for the Best Creamy Pea Soup

• Thaw the peas before cooking. Frozen peas straight from the bag drop the temperature of the pot and need longer in the stock, and that extra time is exactly what dulls their colour. Letting them thaw first means they only need a few minutes to warm through, which keeps them bright and fresh-tasting. Spread them on a plate for twenty minutes or run them under cool water in a sieve. It is a small step that makes a real difference to how green the finished soup looks.
• Watch the potatoes for the right texture. Potatoes are what make this soup creamy once blended, so they need to be fully tender before you blitz. Cut them into even, medium cubes so they cook at the same rate, and check with a fork before blending. Undercooked potato leaves a grainy texture that no amount of blending fixes. As soon as they slide off the fork easily, you are ready.
• Season at the end, not the start. Bacon and stock both bring their own salt, so adding much early on is the fastest way to oversalt the whole pot. Start with just a pinch, then taste and adjust once everything is blended. Remember that if you are topping each bowl with crispy bacon, that bacon adds more salt as you eat. It is always easier to add salt than to rescue a soup that has too much.
• Blend to the consistency you actually like. An immersion blender gives you full control — blitz briefly for a soup with some texture, or longer for a completely silky finish. If the soup is thicker than you want, loosen it with a splash more stock as you blend rather than water, so you do not dilute the flavour. A food processor works too, though you will need to do it in batches and take care with the hot liquid. Aim for smooth and pourable, not gluey.
• Add the sour cream off the heat. Stir the sour cream in once the soup is blended and no longer boiling, so it folds in smoothly without splitting. Adding dairy to a fiercely boiling pot can cause it to curdle and look grainy. A gentle stir is all it takes to give the soup that silky, slightly tangy finish. If you are batch cooking, skip this step for the portions you are storing.
• Keep the peas green by not overcooking. Peas only need a few minutes to be ready, and long cooking turns them a tired, dull khaki. Once the potatoes are tender, the soup is done — there is no benefit to letting it bubble away longer. The shorter the peas spend in the heat, the brighter and fresher the colour stays. This is what gives the soup that vibrant green that makes it look as good as it tastes.
• Use whatever bacon you have. Offcuts are the cheapest option and work brilliantly, but ham, streaky bacon or the ends of a gammon joint all do the same job. Anything with a bit of fat and a savoury, smoky edge will build that base flavour. This is a good recipe for using up bits from the freezer or the back of the fridge. The soup is forgiving, so do not feel tied to one exact cut.
• Make a big batch and store it well. This soup scales up without any fuss, so it is worth making a large pot for the week. Leave the sour cream out of anything you are storing and stir it through each portion as you reheat, which keeps the soup fresher and stops it splitting. It holds in the fridge for up to four days and freezes for up to three months. A splash of stock when reheating brings it back to the right consistency.

Pea and Bacon Soup FAQ

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Easy Pea and Bacon Soup with Vegetables Recipe

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Creamy pea soup with bacon, frozen peas, leeks, celery and potato, blended smooth and finished with sour cream. A cheap, filling soup that comes together in under 40 minutes and scales up easily for batch-cooked lunches.

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes

Total Time 35 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 300g (10½ oz) bacon offcuts, ham or bacon, diced
• 1 medium yellow onion, diced
• 3–4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 leek, white part only, sliced
• 2 celery stalks, chopped
• 2 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into medium cubes
• 600g (1 lb 5 oz) fresh or frozen peas, thawed
• 1.5 litres (6¼ cups) chicken stock (a dissolved cube is fine), plus extra to loosen
• Sea salt
• Ground black pepper
• Sour cream, to finish

Instructions

1. Heat the olive oil in a large soup pot over medium heat. Add the diced bacon and fry until crisp and golden. Lift it out with a slotted spoon and set aside, leaving the bacon fat in the pot.
2. Add the onion to the bacon fat and fry for 2 minutes. Stir in the leek and celery and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, until softened. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute more.
3. Add the potato cubes and thawed peas, stirring to coat everything in the fat. Season with black pepper and just a pinch of salt.
4. Pour in the chicken stock and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer until the potatoes are tender when pierced with a fork. Do not overcook, so the peas stay green.
5. Blend the soup smooth with an immersion blender or in a food processor, adding a splash more stock if needed. Taste and adjust the salt.
6. Stir in the sour cream off the heat. Serve topped with the crispy bacon.

Notes

Thaw the peas before cooking so they keep their bright green colour and need less time in the pot.

Keep early salt light — the bacon and stock are both salty, so adjust at the end.

For batch cooking, leave the sour cream out of any soup you are storing and stir it through each portion as you reheat.

Use whatever bacon you have — offcuts, ham or streaky bacon all work.

Loosen with extra stock rather than water when blending or reheating, to keep the flavour.