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30g (1oz) butter
AROMATICS
1 bouquet garni (2 strips lemon zest, 1 bay leaf, 1 sprig thyme)
MAIN INGREDIENTS
leaves of 1 bunch parsley, roughly chopped
1kg (21/4lb) potatoes, peeled and thickly sliced
1 whole garlic bulb, separated into cloves, peeled
LIQUID
1.2 litres (2 pints) Vegetable or Chicken Stock (see pages 15–17)
300ml (10fl oz) milk
SEASONINGS
salt and pepper
freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 lemon
DRESSING UP (OPTIONAL)
a handful of grated Gruyère cheese
4–6 rashers streaky bacon, cooked until crisp (see right), and crumbled
1 Follow the basic method opposite, adding the stock only, plus salt, pepper and nutmeg at stage 2. When liquidised, stir in the milk, and add a squeeze or two of lemon juice (this highlights flavours, but shouldn’t be so much that the soup tastes lemony).
2 Reheat, and serve with the cheese and bacon if you wish.
need to know
CRISPY BACON To get bacon appetisingly crisp you will need to start off with a pack of streaky bacon. The higher fat content is what makes it go so irresistibly crunchy and golden. A dry-cure bacon is a better option than cheaper bacon which will probably have been pumped up with water and other additives. The best cooking method, I find, is to lay the bacon on a rack over a roasting tin and cook it in a hot oven, around 200°C/400°F/Gas Mark 6, for about 20 minutes until it is golden brown. Grilling is the second best option and not so dissimilar – keep the bacon about 10cm (4in) away from the grill and move it around the grill rack every few minutes so that it grills evenly. Either way, let it cool a little before attempting to crumble it.
need to know
HOW BIG IS A BUNCH? ‘A bunch of parsley’ is, I admit, infuriatingly vague. Actually, it’s deliberately vague, and I hope you will consider it empowering in a very small, kitcheny sort of a way. It’s a permission-giver of a term. So, if you quite fancy the idea of loads of parsley giving the soup a definite green tint, then you use a big bunch. For an altogether tamer affair, take it down to posy-ish size. The point, really, is that the exact size is not critical to the success of the soup; it just changes the taste a little…or a lot. Hey – you’re the cook here. It’s up to you how the food turns out. Embrace the responsibility!
Curried Parsnip Soup
When my Mum, the food writer Jane Grigson, came up with this wonderful soup way back in the 1970s, it seemed quite radical. Now, almost everyone has caught up with it, and variations on the theme abound. The original combination of humble parsnips and curry remains one of the best.
Follow the Good Vegetable Soup recipe on page 20, using a
/
tablespoon curry paste (or a little more if you like things extra spicy) as the aromatic element, and replacing potato and vegetables with 500g (18oz) parsnips, which are starchy enough to thicken the soup without aid. Smaller parsnips should be peeled, then sliced, discarding the top. After peeling, larger parsnips will need to be cut into chunks, then quartered lengthways to reveal the tougher inner core. Cut this bit out and chuck it in the bin. Use what is left for the soup.
This is a soup that takes particularly well to being finished with a little cream swirled into each bowl and a scattering of croûtons.
Carrot and Coriander Soup
This is another modern classic, but one that is often misinterpreted. It is coriander seed that works so magically with carrots, rather than coriander leaf (although this is welcome as a finishing touch).
Follow the recipe for Good Vegetable Soup on page 20, using a tablespoon of whole coriander seeds as the aromatic element, replacing the potato with 1 tablespoon of rice (any white rice: long-grain, pudding or risotto), and using carrots alone, with no other vegetables. Serve the soup with a scattering of fresh coriander leaves on top.
Roast Tomato and Onion Soup
Roasting the vegetables for a soup gives a great depth of flavour, and a hint of something darker and treaclier distilled from the heat-charred edges. It also happens to be a particularly simple way of setting about soup-making. Everything bar the stock is piled into a roasting tin and slid into the oven. You go away for 45 minutes or so, and then all you need do is liquidise the whole lot. And sieve it. Finito.
Serves 4–6
BASE AND MAIN INGREDIENTS
1.5kg (3lb 5oz) reddest tomatoes you can find, cut in half
1kg (21/4 lb) onions, peeled and cut into eighths
6 garlic cloves, unpeeled
3 big thyme sprigs
4 tablespoons olive oil
SEASONINGS
2 teaspoons caster sugar
salt and pepper
LIQUID
900ml (11/2 pints) Vegetable or Chicken Stock (see pages 15–17)
DRESSING UP (optional, but really good)
50ml (2fl oz) whipping cream
a small handful of basil leaves, chopped
1 Preheat the oven to 220°C/425°F/Gas Mark 7.
2 Put all the base and main ingredients and the seasonings into a large roasting tin. Use your hands to turn the vegetables so that they all get coated in oil and evenly seasoned. Roast uncovered for 45 minutes, stirring once, until patched with brown and phenomenally soft and tender. If the onions still appear a little firm, give the whole lot another stir and return to the oven for a further 15 minutes. Remove the thyme stalks.
3 Liquidise in batches with big slurps of stock to keep the whole lot moving (in a processor, or with a hand-held wand liquidiser). Sieve the resulting soup back into the pan, with any remaining stock. Stir well, then taste and adjust seasoning.
4 Reheat when needed, or serve chilled on a hot day.
5 The dressing-up basil cream is easy. Put the cream and most of the basil, together with a couple of pinches of salt, in a bowl and whisk together until the cream just holds its shape. Don’t over-do it or you will end up with butter. Not at all the idea. Drop a spoonful of the basil cream into the centre of each bowl of soup and top with a little of the remaining basil before passing around.
Italian Bean and Vegetable Soup
This is a brilliant, filling chunky soup just like the ones mama makes all over Italy.
Serves 6–8
BASE INGREDIENTS
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, peeled and chopped
3 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
2 carrots, peeled and diced
AROMATICS
2 sprigs each of thyme and rosemary
4 tablespoons chopped parsley
MAIN INGREDIENTS
200g (7oz) dried cannellini beans, soaked overnight, or 1 x 400g can cooked cannellini beans
450g (1lb) potatoes, peeled and cut into 2 cm (3/4in) cubes
about 300g (10oz) prepared weight of at least 2 of the following: courgettes, winter squash such as butternut, turnips, fennel, celery, leeks (see opposite)
1 x 400g can chopped tomatoes
110g (4oz) peas, fresh or frozen and thawed
LIQUIDS
1.2 litres (2 pints) water
SEASONINGS
salt and pepper
DRESSING UP
freshly grated Parmesan cheese (or Cheddar or Gruyère)
the very best extra virgin olive oil
1 If cooking the beans yourself, drain after soaking. Cover with 1.8 litres (3 pints) fresh water, add half the aromatics, and bring to the boil. Boil hard for 5 minutes, and then simmer until the beans are just cooked and tender, around 40 minutes.
2 Drain the cooked or canned beans. If you have cooked them yourself, save the cooking water.
3 Sauté the base ingredients in a good large, heavy-based pan until soft and lightly browned. Don’t rush this. Allow a good 10–15 minutes and keep on stirring, so that the full sweet, caramelised flavour has time to develop.
4 Add the remaining aromatics and all the remaining main ingredients except for the beans, peas, courgettes or leeks (or whichever vegetables you are using). Pour in the liquid (use the bean cooking water if you have it). Season with salt and pepper and bring up to the boil.
5 Simmer gently until the potatoes are almost cooked (around 15 minutes), then stir in the peas and courgettes and leeks if using, along with the beans. Simmer for a further 4–5 minutes. Taste and adjust the seasoning.
6 Serve in big bowls, passing the cheese and olive oil around the table so that everyone can add just the amount they like to their soup.
Italian Vegetable Soup with Pasta
Follow the recipe for Italian Bean and Vegetable Soup opposite, replacing some, all or none of the beans (depending on how much carbohydrate you crave), with a handful or two of small macaroni, or other small pasta shapes. Throw the pasta into the soup when it has been boiling for about 10 minutes, and check that it is cooked al dente (see page 65) before taking the pan off the heat. You may need to add a little extra water (say around 100–150ml/4–5fl oz) to the pan, as the pasta will absorb some of the liquid.
need to know
PREPARING VEGETABLES
COURGETTES: slice thickly and quarter each slice.
WINTER SQUASH (any from pumpkin to butternut squash, to onion squash and so on): cut away the hard rind and scrape out the seeds. Cut the flesh into 2cm (3/4in) cubes.
TURNIPS: if they are young and small there is no need to peel. Older chunkier turnips have older thicker skin, so it’s best to remove it. Cut what remains into 2cm (3/4in) cubes.
FENNEL: trim off the stumps of the stalks, which tend to be stringy. Cut a thin slice from the base, and if the outer layer is damaged and browned, discard that too. Quarter from base to stalk end, then slice each quarter.
CELERY: wash and slice, removing as many strings as possible.
LEEKS: slice off the tougher dark green leaves, and trim off the roots. Make a cut through the centre of the leek, from the leaf end, down its length for around 7.5cm (3in), and then make a second cut, the same length, at right angles to it. Fan this end of the leek out under running water to clean out any trapped particles of earth. Shake off excess water. Now slice the leek into rings about 5mm (1/4in) thick.
Smoked Haddock and Shrimp Chowder
Chowders are big, hearty soups, quick to make and a delight to eat. Essential items are potatoes, carrots, celery, bacon and milk, and from then on you can extemporise. Fish of some sort is usual in a chowder – it was, after all, originally a fisherman’s on-board meal – but not absolutely critical (see below). Smoked haddock gives a particularly fine flavour (buy the undyed, pale honey-tan fish, not the garish yellow), while a handful of shrimps or prawns lifts it above the ordinary.
Serves 4 as a main course, 6 as a starter
BASE INGREDIENTS
1 onion, chopped
30g (1oz) butter
