Technically soup isnt baking.....

This week i have been knee deep in soup!! My cupboards are groaning under the weight of all the vegetables and bread rolls that i keep stuffing into them. I think the weather plays a huge part in what i tend to eat and now that the dark nights have crept in and the temperature has dropped – gone are the pesky salad’s and quiches and in with the soups and hot foods.

I’ve made two batches of delicious soup this week alone and cannot begin to guess how many pans of soup lay ahead in my future!!! The soup that i have been making this week doesn’t really have a name, i guess it could be called ‘Three Veg & Garlic’ – hmm doesn’t sound very appealing.

The veg i threw in were asparagus, carrots, leaks, onion and garlic. The overall end result of the soup was thick and yummy, add to this a warm bread roll and you can’t beat it for a winter warmer!!

You can even do what i did and make extra so you can take some to work the next day – and if I’m being honest, after a night of stewing the flavours seem to pop more and i thoroughly enjoyed it today for my dinner!!!

If you fancy making this quick and easy tea for yourself, check out my recipe below. You can play around with ingredients and spices and see what other little gems you can create – let me know if you stumble across anything nice, i’d love to add more soups to my list.

Ingredients

·         1 bunch of asparagus

·         Carrots

·         1 Leak

·         1 onion

·         Garlic

·         Chicken/Vegetable stock

·         Olive oil

1)      Add a small amount of olive oil to a pan and turn onto a low heat.

2)      Chop the onion,asparagus, carrots and leak into bite size pieces and add to the pan and allow them to sweat gently for approx 5-10 minutes or until tender.

3)      Drop one (and a half depending on your own preference) stock cubes into 500ml boiling water and allow to dissolve – pour this over the vegetables. Your looking to have the waterline just above the top of the veg.

4)      Turn the heat up to allow the stock to boil, then lower this back down to a gentle simmer. At this point add your garlic. (Overcooked garlic turns bitter).

5)      Leave the pan simmering for another 10 minutes, or until all the vegetables are tender. Then blast this in a food processor, or with a handheld blender to churn out all the chunky vegetables. (Don’t worry if you don’t have a blender, this soup can be enjoyed chunky, but i would recommend blitzing this down if possible).

6)      Add sea salt and cracked black pepper to taste and a drop of cream to garnish if required.

This soup is a really healthy soup – the only thing you are adding is water and vegetables so this is why its another favourite of mine. Warm a bread roll up to add to this dish if desired. I would have made my own bread but i couldn’t wait that long – the smells in my kitchen from this dish were too alluring!!!

Happy Souping!!

Toni – T - Cake

Please note the pictures used in this post did not belong to me (excluding the 'winter' pic, this one is mine) - i didnt have chance to take any of my yummy soup, as soon as i make this again - i'll upload mine!!