Winter Vegetable Soup

Today is definitely soup weather so I came home today armed with some in-season veggies with the aim of making my first ever soup. I read a few recipes to get an idea of how to tackle this but it’s all very straight forward and by my reckoning you can substitute with many other vegetables. Looks good doesn’t it? Tasted good too.

Here’s the recipe; give it a go. Was tres simple. Serves 4.

Ingredients

The following vegetables cut into 1-inch chunks:

• 1 sweet potato
• 1 potato
• 1 medium onion
• 1 large carrot
• 1 parsnip
• 1 leek
• 1 celery stick

1.5 pints of vegetable stock

3 tablespoons olive oil

50ml of double cream

Salt & pepper to taste

Method

Gently heat the olive oil in a casserole dish or any other deep pan you have.

Add the onion and leek and replace lid on pan. You want these to sweat/soften, not brown.

Add the remaining vegetable. Increase the heat slightly and stir so they are coated in the oil. Lower heat again and replace lid to allow vegetables to sweat also.

Prepare your stock. You can obviously prepare your own but I cheated so I used stock cubes.

Pour hot stock into the pan. Bring everything to a boil and then lower heat and replace lid.

Allow to simmer for 20-25 minutes (or until vegetables are soft), stirring every 10 minutes.

When vegetable are soft, liquidise entire mixture using a hand blender or food processer. (Warning: be careful, it’s very hot!)

Once completely smooth, add the double cream and stir. Season with salt and pepper to taste. 

Simmer till serving time. Transfer to warm bowls and serve with crusty buttered bread.