Pea Soup with Honey Sweetened Eggplant

Today I came across this recipe for split peas with honey sweetened eggplant on Epicurious:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Split-Peas-with-Honey-Sweetened-Eggplant-232481

I thought it would give me a perfect opportunity to make use of my frozen chicken stock and to prepare myself for the ratatouille I'll be making tomorrow. Not having split peas on hand, I used frozen petite peas and changed the soup recipe a little. In making these changes, I was inspired by Michael Chiarello's recipe for Spring Pea Soup:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/michael-chiarello/spring-pea-soup-recipe/index.html

Here's my version.

Ingredients:

1 cup frozen petite peas

1/4 cup cream

2 cups chicken stock

2 garlic cloves

1 medium onion

olive oil

1 bay leaf

1 tsp thyme

salt and pepper and lemon juice (about half a lemon) to taste

Saute the onion and garlic in a pot with olive oil over medium high heat. After 8 minutes or so, add the stock, bay leaf, peas and cream. Bring to a boil. Take out about 1/4 cup of peas and set aside. Puree the rest of the soup in a blender, adding more stock or cream if necessary. Add the whole peas back into the soup. Salt and pepper and lemon juice to taste.

The pop of the whole peas in the soup as you eat it is just wonderful. I don't even like peas that much, but I would eat this pea soup any day--even on a scorching hot day such as this! (Note: It was even better cold the next day) The lemon is a nice finishing touch that brightens up the soup.

Here's the honey sweetened eggplant served over quinoa..

I didn't add the capers because I didn't have any on hand, but even without capers it was great. This is a pretty simple rustic dish. The addition of honey is a nice touch; it was surprising that just a dab of honey could change the flavor of the whole dish.