Feta Almond and Fennel Soup

This month Dom of Belleau Kitchen and Jacqueline of Tinned Tomatoes have joined forces or rather challenges and come up with the Random Recipe No Croutons Required challenge. What that adds up to is that I wanted to choose a vegetarian soup recipe at random from my book collection. The first cookbook I randomly selected had no soups at all but the second was ‘Classic Bull’ by Stephen Bull, which has a small section on soups, and the randomly chosen number nine gave me this little gem.

There are some excellent recipes in this book, so I was confident that this soup would be good and I promise it is. I have to confess that I made a variation to the original in that Mr Bull uses chicken stock and I just had to be vegetarian. The amount given here would serve 4 as a light and refined starter but, in this case, fed 2 as a very pleasing lunch dish. I served it hot, but it will also work perfectly well when served cold.
Feta Almond and Fennel Soup

25 g butter
100 g onion, chopped
50 g feta cheese
50 g flaked almonds
2 cloves garlic, chopped roughly
75 g fennel, finely sliced
1 small stalk celery, sliced
500 ml vegetable stock

Lightly toast the flaked almonds in a dry frying pan. Melt the butter in a saucepan and soften the onion over a gentle heat for 10 minutes.

Add all the other ingredients, including the toasted almonds, to the pan containing the onions. Cook over a moderate heat for 20 minutes. Allow to cool a little, then liquidise.

Comments

  1. Unknown23 November 2011 at 09:58

    what an unusual soup!... was it nice? I adore fennel so imagine it would be lovely... thanks so much for taking part again!

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  2. Vanilla Frost Cakes23 November 2011 at 13:23

    This looks lovely, and very unusual. Still can't get my head round the concept of cold soups but would love to try it hot.

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  3. Mel @ Sharky Oven Gloves23 November 2011 at 18:09

    This is such an intriguing combination of flavours!! I've seen several recipes before that combine feta and almond, but I don't think I've ever seen one that adds fennel in, too.

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  4. Janice23 November 2011 at 21:58

    I would certainly never have thought of that combination. I can certainly see how it would be good cold too.

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  5. Phil in the Kitchen23 November 2011 at 22:55

    Thanks for the comments, everyone.

    Thinking about it now the combination of flavours might seem a little unexpected but the fact is that I have such respect for Stephen Bull's cooking that if he suggests that a combination of flavours works well then I'm instantly convinced that he's right. I wouldn't hesitate to make this again; it was delicious.

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  6. MissCakeBaker24 November 2011 at 19:47

    I would never have thought of putting feta in a soup. It looks and sounds great.

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  7. Jacqueline Meldrum25 November 2011 at 14:39

    What an unusual soup. I love it! Thanks for entering it into theis month's NCR :)

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  8. Brownieville Girl26 November 2011 at 13:58

    Feta and almonds, what an unusual combination - but utterly delicious I'd imagine.

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  9. Anne26 November 2011 at 20:02

    The flavours sound unusual but at the same time can imagine this soup being very fragrant with everything working in harmony together..

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  10. Shu Han26 November 2011 at 20:40

    i love that creamy white colour! very interesting combination of flavours, i'm intrigued!

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  11. GG28 November 2011 at 00:12

    What an unusual combination of ingredients. I can't get my head round cold soup but i'm sure this would be delicious warm. GG

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  12. Quay Po Cooks28 November 2011 at 01:56

    My hubby love fennel. I got to make this soup for him. Never see this combination before.

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  13. Wendy@The Omnivorous Bear28 November 2011 at 14:20

    Oh, Phil....this hits all the right buttons. It looks delicious, too (great photo!) I think I may try the chilled version....what with it being in the 90's here a hot soup may see me off!

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  14. Anonymous6 December 2011 at 18:38

    What a lovely & terrific well flavoured soup!

    A must make! the soup calls my name,...!!!

    ReplyDelete

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