Broccoli (and cauliflower) soup

From Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares
Ingredients

1 large or two medium broccoli clusters (as fresh as possible)
Salt (3 tsp.)
Ground Black Pepper (4-5 turns on the grind wheel)
Water
Olive Oil

Bring water to a boil in a large stock pot. Add a large pinch of salt (1 – 1 1/2 Tbsp.). Add broccoli and boil rapidly.

Your broccoli is finished cooking when you can pierce it with little or no effort. Remove the stock pan from the stove burner. DO NOT POUR THE WATER OUT! Use a slotted spoon to add broccoli to a blender but be careful because it’s boiling hot! Pour enough of the water left over from cooking the broccoli to fill the blender half way. Add a pinch (or more) of salt. Use several pulses on your blender to break the broccoli up and then puree for several seconds.

Pour soup into shallow bowl. Drizzle lightly with olive oil and serve at once!

Anyone who thinks making soup is difficult should try this recipe

My modifications is (as always arising from the leftovers in my fridge) adding a grilled slice of ciabatta topped with pancetta and parmesan cheese to the soup.

And to adapt this to the Spawn’s dietary requirements. I made a batch of the soup but without any seasoning. Instead I added some mild cheddar cheese to it. Apparently he likes it.

Potato soup with bacon and chives

From Irish Cooking by Clare Connery
Serves 6 – 8

Ingredients

50g butter
1 large onion, roughly chopped
750g potatoes, peeled and roughly chopped
750ml chicken stock
750m mil
50ml single cream
6 rashers of streaky bacon, chopped and fried until crisp
salt and pepper
1 tbsp snipped chives, to garnish

Melt the butter in a large saucepan and fry the onion until soft, without colouring. Add the potatoes, stock and milk, and season with salt and pepper. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 40 -45 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent the potatoes from sticking.

Puree the soup in a liquidizer or food processor until smooth. Return to the saucepan, taste and adjust the seasoning and stir in the cream and bacon. Bring to the boil and serve in individual soup bowls, garnished with snipped chives.

Southern indian rice and seafood soup

From Jamie’s Dinners
Serves 4

Ingredients
5 tablespoons vegetable or sunflower oil
3 tablespoons brown mustard seeds
1 handful fresh curry leaves, picked off their stalks
2 teaspoons cumin seeds
1 teaspoon garam masala
1½ teaspoons chilli powder
2 teaspoons turmeric
3 red chillies, deseeded and finely sliced
2 large thumb-sized pieces fresh ginger, peeled and grated
6 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
2 onions, peeled and finely chopped
2 handfuls basmati rice
565 ml water
600 g fish, from sustainable sources, ask your fishmonger, skinned, filleted and cut into 2-3 inch chunks
400 ml light coconut milk
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
juice of 2 limes
1 handful fresh coriander, roughly chopped
3 tablespoons freshly grated coconut

Get yourself a big pan and heat up your oil, then add the mustard seeds, curry leaves, cumin seeds, garam masala, chilli powder and turmeric. Cook for a few minutes and you’ll get the most amazing smells filling the room from all these spices. Then add the chillies, the ginger, the garlic and the onions. Continue cooking slowly until the garlic and onions are soft. Then add the rice and the water. Bring to the boil then reduce the heat and simmer gently for 15 minutes. Add your fish and the coconut milk with a little more water and a pinch of salt. Put the lid on the pan and simmer for a further 10 minutes, then stir well to break up the pieces of fish. Taste and correct the seasoning with salt and pepper, then just before you serve it squeeze in the lime juice and stir in half the coriander. Serve in warmed bowls, sprinkle over some freshly grated coconut, if you have it, and rip over the rest of the coriander.</strong

Anything with curry powder in it is normally good!

Spicy parsnip soup

From Jamie Oliver

Ingredients

olive oil
1 knob butter
1 large onion, peeled and roughly chopped
2 cloves garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
1 thumb-sized piece fresh ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
1 tablespoon garam masala
6 parsnips, peeled and chopped into chunks
500 ml semi-skimmed milk
1 litre organic vegetable stock
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
1 fresh red chilli, deseeded and finely sliced
1 handful fresh coriander leaves, optional
crusty bread, to serve

Method

Heat a splash of olive oil and the butter in a large saucepan. Add the onion, garlic, ginger and garam masala. Gently fry for around 10 minutes, until the onions are soft and sweet.

Drop in the chopped parsnip and stir together so that everything gets coated in the oil and flavours. Pour in the milk and stock, season well and bring to the boil. Turn down the heat and simmer for 30 minutes with a lid on.

After half an hour, check that the parsnips are cooked by sticking a knife in. If you’re happy, remove them from the heat and carefully whiz up using a hand blender or liquidizer. Taste the soup to see if it needs a little more salt or pepper.

Serve with a sprinkling of sliced red chilli, a few coriander leaves if you like, and a good chunk of crusty bread.

Tip: Use coconut milk instead of regular milk for a twist.

Good simple soup with a bit of spice to give it a good kick

Ribatejo “Stone” soup

Ingredients

1kg dry red beans
750g potatoes
200g belly pork
2 pork ears
1 black sausage
1 meat sausage
1 fainheira – Portugese sausage made from wheat flour, pork fat and spice
1 big onion
2 cloves of garlic
3 soup spoon of olive oil
1 bay leaf
fresh chopped coriander
piri piri to taste
salt and pepper to taste

Soak the red beans for 24 hours Scrape, wash and season thickly with salt pork ears, leaving them for four hours. Wash off the salt and boil them inside the water with all other meat and sausages, chopped onion, garlic and bay leaf. Add salt and pepper, if needed. Take out the all meat out from the water when half cooked and save.

To the remaining water add olive oil, soaked beans and cook. When the beans becomes soft, peel potatoes, cut them in cubes and add to the beans. Check the water level and spices.

Cut the pre cooked meat into small pieces and add to the pan with beans when the potatoes are cooked. Check the spices and add if necessary. If you like, add few drops of piri piri and let it cook for a bit.

Serve hot sprinkled with freshly chopped coriander.

I am reminded of one of my favourite ladybird books when I was young when I saw this recipe in the Portuguese cookbook that I brought back from Lisbon.

Essentially the story is about a tramp convincing an old lady that he can make soup from stone by getting to add more and more ingredients gradually. Anyway, as I didn’t have all the ingredients, I made this without some of the sausages in the recipe (I used farinheira (spoils from Lisbon) and chorizo) and clearly I didn’t use pig’s ears! It’s essentially a nice warming meaty soup.

Cream of asparagus soup

From The Great British Farmhouse Cookbook
Serves 4
Ingredients

6 bunches fine asparagus (total weight of approx. 1.2kg)
2 litres vegetable or light homemade chicken stock
300g trimmed and cleaned leeks
100g unsalted butter, plus 25g extra for drizzling
3 sticks celery, thinly sliced
65g plain flour
3 tbsp double cream
1 tsp white wine vinegar, for poaching
8 large, really fresh free-range eggs
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

METHOD:
Rinse the asparagus is cold water to rid it of any sand, then snap off the woody ends and roughly chop them. Put them into a pan with the stock, bring to the boil, cover and simmer for 15 minutes, then strain and set aside.

Meanwhile, cut the 4cm-long tips from half the asparagus spears. Roughly chop the remaining stalks.

Bring 2 small pans of water to the boil. Add some salt to one pan, drop in the asparagus tips and cook for 2 minutes until just tender. Drain, refresh under cold water and set aside. Add the vinegar and pinch of salt to the second pan and reduce the heat to low. Break one of the eggs into a teacup. Swirl the water with a spoon to create a whirlpool, drop in the egg and leave it to poach for 3 minutes, then carefully remove with a slotted spoon to a plate. Repeat with the remaining eggs, bringing the water back to the boil and then lowering again each time. Leave the poaching water over a low heat.

Cut off the really dark green leaves from the leeks (and discard or save for stock) and thinly slice the remainder. Melt 100g of the butter in a large pan, add the asparagus stalks, sliced leeks and celery, cover and cook over a low heat for 10 minutes until soft but not browned.

Uncover, stir in the flour and cook for 1 more minute. Stir in the asparagus-flavoured stock, cover again and simmer for 10 minutes until the vegetables are tender. Remove from the heat, cool slightly and then liquidise the soup in batches until very smooth. Pass through a sieve back into a clean pan, bring back to a simmer and stir in the cream and some seasoning to taste.

Melt the remaining butter. Lower the poached eggs back into the simmering water and leave for 30 seconds, then remove and drain briefly on kitchen paper. Ladle the soup into warmed bowls and scatter over the asparagus tips. Place a poached egg into the centre of each bowl, season the top of each one with a little salt and pepper then drizzle over the melted butter and serve.

Portugese Cabbage Soup

From The Hairy Bikers

Ingredients
2 fat onions, finely chopped
4 cloves garlic, crushed
60ml/2¼fl oz olive oil
1 chorizo sausage
6 large potatoes
1.5 litres/2 pints 13fl oz good vegetable or chicken stock
salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
2 bay leaves
large bunch of greens or cabbage
smoked paprika and olive oil, for dressing
Preparation method
Gently fry the onions and garlic in the olive oil until softened and translucent.
Chop the chorizo into small chunks and add to the pan with the onion.
Fry the onions and sausage for a few more minutes and then add the diced potatoes. They will absorb all the flavour from the sausage.
Transfer the mixture to a large pan, add the stock, seasoning and bay leaves, and cook until the potatoes are soft.
Meanwhile, very finely chop the cabbage (alternatively, buy a cabbage-shredding machine from the market as we did).
When the potatoes are ready, mash them into the broth to make a thick base. Blanch the greens in boiling water for one minute to take off any bitterness, drain, then add to the simmering broth.
Add as much cabbage as the broth will support – if you want heavy soup add loads of greens, if lighter, add less.
Simmer for a few minutes. The soup will go the colour of jade.
Mix the smoked paprika with some olive oil to make a dressing, and swirl this red magic into the vibrant green soup. Serve with some rustic country bread.

Winter soup with bacon, lentils and pasta

Waitrose recipes
Serves 4
Ingredients
200g Waitrose Free Range Smoked Dry Cured Lardons
1 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 celery stalk, chopped
1 carrot, diced
2 tomatoes, chopped
200g Waitrose Love Life Green Lentils
1.5 litres hot chicken stock
100g Waitrose Orzo
25g pack flatleaf parsley, chopped

1. Cook the lardons, chopped onion, garlic, celery and diced carrot in a large saucepan for 5 minutes until the bacon lardons begin to crisp – there should be enough oil in the lardons so you won’t need to add more.

2. Add the chopped tomatoes, cook for 1-2 minutes or until pulpy then stir in the lentils and stock. Bring to the boil, cover and simmer for 15 minutes.

3. Add the orzo pasta and cook for a further 8-10 minutes until both the lentils and pasta are tender. Stir in the parsley then ladle into bowls and serve with plenty of black pepper.

English onion soup

From Jamie at home
Serves 4

Ingredients
a good knob of butter
olive oil
a good handful of fresh sage leaves, 8 leaves reserved for serving
6 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed
5 red onions, peeled and sliced
3 large white onions, peeled and sliced
3 banana shallots, peeled and sliced
300g leeks, trimmed, washed and sliced
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 litres good-quality hot beef, chicken or vegetable stock
8 slices of good-quality stale bread,
2cm thick
200g freshly grated Cheddar cheese
Worcestershire sauce

Put the butter, 2 glugs of olive oil, the sage and garlic into a thick-bottomed, non-stick pan. Stir everything round and add the onions, shallots and leeks. Season with salt and pepper. Place a lid on the pan, leaving it slightly ajar, and cook slowly for 50 minutes, without colouring the vegetables too much. Remove the lid for the last 20 minutes – your onions will become soft and golden. Stir occasionally so that nothing catches on the bottom. Having the patience to cook the onions slowly, slowly, gives you an incredible sweetness and an awesome flavour, so don’t be tempted to speed this bit up.

When your onions and leeks are lovely and silky, add the stock. Bring to the boil, turn the heat down and simmer for 10 to 15 minutes. You can skim any fat off the surface if you like, but I prefer to leave it because it adds good flavour.

Preheat the oven or grill to maximum. Toast your bread on both sides. Correct the seasoning of the soup. When it’s perfect, ladle it into individual heatproof serving bowls and place them on a baking tray. Tear toasted bread over each bowl to fit it like a lid. Feel free to push and dunk the bread into the soup a bit. Sprinkle with some grated Cheddar and drizzle over a little Worcestershire sauce.

Dress your reserved sage leaves with some olive oil and place one on top of each slice of bread. Put the baking tray into the preheated oven or under the grill to melt the cheese until bubbling and golden. Keep an eye on it and make sure it doesn’t burn! When the cheese is bubbling, very carefully lift out the tray and carry it to the table. Enjoy.

Don’t worry too much about what onions you have. The thing is to use as many varieties as you can, but if you have just normal onions that’s fine as well. I have gone for the rustic look with this dish which explains the burnt marks on the side!

Vichyssoise (Leek and potato soup)

Ingredients

600g leeks, white parts only, thinly sliced
250g floury potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
1.5 litres of chicken stock
butter

Melt the butter in a heavy pan and cook the leeks, covered, for 15-20 minutes, until they are soft but not browned.

Add the potato chunks and cook over a low heat, uncovered for a few minutes.

Stir in the stock with salt and pepper to taste. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and partly cover the pan. Simmer for about 15 minutes, or until the potatoes are soft.

Cool, then process the soup until smooth in a blender. Sieve the soup into a bowl. Taste and adjust the seasoning and add a little water if the consistency of the soup seems too thick.

One of my favourite French soups and one that I make on a regular basis. I think this is supposed to be a cold soup; I am just a bit apprehensive about having it that way…