I am really pleased to be able to help you out with soups, (or hopefully help you out) Soups, stews or a combination of the above stoups, are a favourite of mine.
They can be simple and quick and smell so lovely when cooking. They can be full of creams and butters or the opposite and be a tasty diet food too... They can be packed with expensive ingredients or can make a bulk budget meal. Heat up at home and pop into a thermos flask and they can be a lunch on the go food too.
I ALWAYS use the same stock in all of my soups, The Marigold, Swiss vegetable bouillon powder, it is veggie, gluten free, yeast free and is a great base for all soups, and a good way to start.
But where to begin, where to begin???
One of my Christmas presents was The River Cottage Veg everyday cookbook, and I made one of the soup recipes from there, how about you give that a try? It's an tasty one, would be a filling one to take to work and is so easy that you couldn't go wrong..
Pearl Barley Broth (Page160 for anyone with the book) and if you don't have it, I recommend it!
I simplified it a little when I made it, so here is my version
Ingredients
Knob butter
2 onions, finely chopped)
1 bay leaf
A few thyme leaves (1 small tsp dried thyme, or even mixed herbs)
1 stick celery finely chopped
1 carrot finely chopped
1 parsnip finely chopped
pinch each of ground coriander, cayenne pepper and nutmeg
100g pearl barley (rinsed)
1.5 litres of vegetable stock
A small handful of chopped parsley (I didn't bother with this bit but might in the summer when its growing well)
Salt and pepper
Method
Heat the butter in a large pan and gently cook the onions, bay leaf and thyme, for about 15 mins until soft and translucent
Add celery, carrot and parsnip and cook for a further 5 minutes
Stir in the spices
Add pearl barley, pour in the stock and simmer for half an hour (Mine took a little longer than this)
Here in HFW book it says add salt, but actually mine was a little salty so maybe skip this and add at the end if needed
I served mine with croutons, yummy, Cut some bread into 2cm cubes and gently fry in veg oil then drain on kitchen paper to make them crispy not oily, lovely (I cook them like this with garlic too for tomato soups)
Anyway, give that a go and let me know how you get on.
Yours, souper optimistic,
Ruth
P.s Hugh FW book can be found on the river cottage website http://astore.amazon.co.uk/rivecott-21/detail/1408812126/275-5785139-7725341
It is £12.50 and worth it :0)
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