Wakefield Museums and Castles

• 1 unsmoked ham hock (previously soaked for 4 hours in clean water. You could use 1.2 litre stock instead.) 
• 500g fresh or frozen peas – shelled (reserve a few for garnish) 
• Pepper 
• 15g cornflour 
• 80g spinach 
• Raw beetroot cut into thin strips (optional) 

1. Simmer the ham hock for several hours until tender.
2. Reserve the water and put the meat to one side as this can be served as a main course.
3. Strain the stock and keep 1.2 litres of it.
4. Simmer the peas in the stock until tender, adding the spinach in the last few minutes.
5. Either pass the soup through a sieve or use a blender.
6. Serve with a few whole peas and some small strips of beetroot to garnish. You might also serve a few baked croutons with it. 

To make Green Pease Soop:

Take a neck of mutton, and a knuckle of the veal, make of them a little good gravy; then, take half a peck of the greenest young pease peas, boil and beat them to a pulp in a marble mortar;

then put to them a little of the gravy; strain them through a hair-sieve to take out all the pulp; put all together, with a little salt and whole pepper;

then boil it a little, and if you think the soop not green enough, boil a handful of spinage very tender, rub it through a hair-sieve, and put into the soop with one spoonful of wheat flour, to keep it from running;

You must not let it boil after the spinage is put in, it will discolour it; then cut white bread in little diamonds, fry them in butter while crisp, and put it into a dish, with a few whole peas.

Garnish your dish with creed rice, and red beet-root. 

You may make asparagus-soop the same way, only add tops of asparagus, instead of whole pease.