I love soup, it ticks so many boxes. It is a great lunch with a couple of slices of nice bread, I usually take a wee tub of soup to work and after a couple of minutes in the microwave I have a lovely hot lunch. And it is a great way of using different veg, whatever I have lying around that needs using up.
My usual strategy is 1 litre of veg stock (I cheat and use Marigold Bouillion powder – fantastic stuff) per kg of veg. The veg can be pretty much anything, so long as it includes at least one onion. I chop everything up, then gently fry/sauté the onion in some olive oil in a largish pan for about 5 minutes. Add the chopped veg, put the lid on the pan and sauté for another 5 minutes. I might at this point add some herbs and/or spices. Then add the stock, bring to the boil, and simmer gently until the veg are tender. Then if I fancy chunky soup I take half the veg out and blitz the rest with billy the blender, or I just blitz the whole lot. Favourite combinations at the moment are: parsnip with curry powder, carrot with ginger and cinnamon, or mixed veg with some sweet chilli sauce added at the end.
Today I fancied a broth. I’m not sure what the technical difference is, but to me a broth is when you have small dice of everything plus some pearl barley, or rice or small pasta. So I made mixed veg broth:
Mixed veg broth
2 medium leeks, finely sliced
2 largish carrots, peeled and finely diced
6 small potatoes, peeled and finely diced
1 small can sweet corn
100g pearl barley
2 tbsp olive oil
1.2 litre veg stock.
Saute the leeks in the olive oil. Then add the carrots and potatoes, put the lid on and sauté for another 5 or so minutes. Add the veg stock and bring to the boil, and the pearl barley and turn down to a gentle simmer. Simmer with the lid on for 30 minutes or so until the pearl barley is cooked. Finally add the sweetcorn and allow it to heat through.
My usual strategy is 1 litre of veg stock (I cheat and use Marigold Bouillion powder – fantastic stuff) per kg of veg. The veg can be pretty much anything, so long as it includes at least one onion. I chop everything up, then gently fry/sauté the onion in some olive oil in a largish pan for about 5 minutes. Add the chopped veg, put the lid on the pan and sauté for another 5 minutes. I might at this point add some herbs and/or spices. Then add the stock, bring to the boil, and simmer gently until the veg are tender. Then if I fancy chunky soup I take half the veg out and blitz the rest with billy the blender, or I just blitz the whole lot. Favourite combinations at the moment are: parsnip with curry powder, carrot with ginger and cinnamon, or mixed veg with some sweet chilli sauce added at the end.
Today I fancied a broth. I’m not sure what the technical difference is, but to me a broth is when you have small dice of everything plus some pearl barley, or rice or small pasta. So I made mixed veg broth:
Mixed veg broth
2 medium leeks, finely sliced
2 largish carrots, peeled and finely diced
6 small potatoes, peeled and finely diced
1 small can sweet corn
100g pearl barley
2 tbsp olive oil
1.2 litre veg stock.
Saute the leeks in the olive oil. Then add the carrots and potatoes, put the lid on and sauté for another 5 or so minutes. Add the veg stock and bring to the boil, and the pearl barley and turn down to a gentle simmer. Simmer with the lid on for 30 minutes or so until the pearl barley is cooked. Finally add the sweetcorn and allow it to heat through.
This made enough for 2 huge lunchtime portions plus enough soup for me for lunches all this week. Next time I might try adding some Thai Tom Yum paste before adding the stock and then add brown rice instead of the pearl barley.
So at the end of the weekend the contents of the veg bag are reduced to:
1 onion
1 small cabbage
3 small potatoes
Plus ½ dozen eggs
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