Enjoy this delicious late-spring soup while it’s still in season. Every year, the borage plants appear in the vegetable patch. It would almost be considered a weed if the dark green foliage and starry blossoms weren’t so welcome. 

You can eat some of the tiniest and youngest borage leaves raw with wild rocket and lettuce at the start of the spring growing season. They have a mild cucumber flavor to them. On the negative, they can be a touch rough and, to be honest, a lot hairier than a salad leaf should be. The tough leaves responds wonderfully to a quick sauté in melted butter with a little pepper, and it’s especially good in soup.

Relish this borage leaf soup made with sweet peas (picked from the overgrown pods of a mange tout plant), freshness from a hearty clutch of yard mint and spring onions, and a complementing hint of cucumber from the colander of borage leaves.

Servings 4 people

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp unsalted butter
• 125 g spring onions, roughly chopped
• 200 g borage leaves, shredded 
• 125 g fresh peas 
• 1 l chicken or vegetable stock
• 4 large sprigs of fresh garden mint
• Sea salt and black pepper
• Extra virgin olive oil 

To Serve:

• 6 tbsp fried potatoes with pickled wild garlic flower buds 
• 4 soft-poached chicken eggs 
• A small handful of borage flowers
• A small handful of pea shoots 
• A few peas, raw and freshly podded 

Directions

1. In a large pot over low heat, melt the butter and gently cook the spring onions for about five minutes, or until tender.
2. Add the peas and simmer for an additional minute before adding the shredded borage leaves.
3. Pour in the stock and increase the heat to maintain a gentle simmer.
4. When the stock is simmering, add the mint leaves and cook for another five minutes, or until the vegetables are soft but the flavors are still vibrant.
5. Salt and pepper to taste, then puree the soup in a blender until smooth.
6. Serve immediately with crusty bread.

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