Simple soups (#thebreakfastclub)

There is something very lovely about homemade soups, the more simple the better too. They can be stretched to feed many, adapted to the tightest of budgets, or tweaked with all sorts of extra yummy things. They are good for dieters, good for helping boost your 5 a day, good for thermos flasks as lunch, good as a supper, good to freeze, good to share, good to use up bendy carrots, sad potatoes and all sorts of vegetable draw victims.

I prepared the following two soups at the same time, in under 5 minutes, quick, easy, nutritious and tasty, what more do you need?

Firstly I will give you the basic recipes, and then some hints on how to make a little extra of them if you have time.

The most important part of soup making is the stock, like a blank canvas or a slice of bread, it is the base of everything. I ALWAYS use Marigold Swiss Vegetable Bouillon, it is great and well worth getting hold of, although I do tend to make it up a little weaker than suggested.

Leek and Potato Soup

Ingredients

2 medium leeks
Knob of butter (optional)
3 - 4 medium potatoes
1 litre of vegetable stock
0.5 litres water
Ground black pepper

Method

Roughly chop the leeks, discarding any tough green bits, dirty outer leaves and the root bit at the very bottom

Soften in a pan with the knob of butter. Make sure they don't brown as this will not make a attractive soup and will make the whole pot taste of fried onions.

Meanwhile, peel and chop potatoes, into quarters, or possibly more if you have used large potatoes. Add to the leeks, pour over stock and water, add ground black pepper (I suppose I use about 4 twists on my pepper grinder) then bring to the boil.

Turn down until simmering and cook for about 20  minutes until potatoes are soft.

Blend cooked soup and check for seasonings

Hints - nice with a good wedge of crumbled Stilton stirred in
Adjust the thickness by the changing the amount of potatoes you put in
It works well with a bag of watercress cooked in it, adding a pepper flavour and iron
Works well with a head of brocolli too, but don't add to much stalk as that maes it very gloopy

Tomato and Carrot

Ingredients

1 tin of chopped or plum tomatoes
3 medium carrots
1 litre vegetable stock
0.5 tsp of mild chilli powder

Method

Peel and chop carrots

Add all ingredients to soup pan and bring to the boil

Turn down to a simmer and then cook for 20 minutes until carrots are soft

Blend until smooth


Hints - you could omit the chilli altogether, or add basil instead, any left over soup can then be added to mince to make pasta sauce
Nice topped with grated cheese, or homemade croutons (cubes of bread fried slowly in butter or oil with a little chopped garlic)
Great in a thermos as it is a thin soup
A nice diet soup too.