As Strong As Soup

Recently I heard someone happily reminiscing about the recipes and styles of cooking that represented the different stages of their life. This blog has been going since 2009 and has close to 300 recipes and I imagined that it would fulfil that function for me. But when I looked back through the blog I realised that there are quite a few gaps. So, before I admit that enough is enough with this blogging malarkey, I've decided that my project for this year should be to try to fill at least some of those gaps. Yes, I know this is self-regarding nonsense, but I'm too old to care.  This isn't a history lesson, though, and I wouldn't necessarily want to recreate dishes from the past in their original form. I'd rather offer versions that I really want to eat today. I suppose that I should present these recipes in chronological order but I'm afraid that my mind doesn't work that way. So I'm starting in the 1990s for no very good reason at all. This recipe is a ri...

It's getting very autumnal and, for me, that means it's soup time. Recently I was listening to someone talking on the radio about how unusual it was to use wine in a soup. I wasn't convinced that it was that unusual and I began trying to remember any soups that I'd made with wine. From somewhere deep in my confused memory,  I recovered this one from the distant past. It's a simple enough soup but if the balance between the sweet ingredients (the leeks and sweet potatoes) and the sharp ingredients (dry white wine and lime) is just right, then I think it's a bit special. The touch of chilli heat rounds it off very nicely for me. Of course, there are a lot of variables such as the size and sweetness of the sweet potatoes, so it's the perfect excuse to taste carefully and repeatedly before serving to your victims , sorry, I mean guests. You could use any chilli paste or sauce you like in this soup but one with a good savoury flavour and maybe a little smokiness...

This makes around 7 or 8 portions, depending on the size of the veg you use. 1 small butternut squash, peeled and cut into chunks 1 onion, chopped finely 1 clove garlic, finely chopped (or crushed if you can’t be bothered) 2 litres chicken or vegetable stock (or a combination of both) 3 small or 2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks 2 medium-sized Bramley apples, peeled, cored and cut into large chunks A few small leaves of sage, chopped ¼ tsp 5 spice powder Generous pinch or two chilli flakes Generous squeeze or two of lemon In an oven tray coat the butternut squash pieces lightly with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast the squash until it’s fairly soft but not too charred at the edges – around 30 minutes at 180°C should be about right. In a large frying pan soften the onion with a small amount of oil, adding water to keep it from burning (and to keep the fat down). Add the garlic and soften briefly. Pour in 1½ litres of the stock, add th...

Cranberries, clementines and nuts sound a bit too Christmassy for me - Christmas comes very low on my list of favourite times of the year. But then I thought why shouldn't I be using these really good ingredients when they're at their best? It's not their fault that they get slopped on to turkey or turn up at the bottom of Santa's sack. So I've had a go. This salad will serve 4 as part of a mezze or 2 as a light lunch with some flatbreads or something of that kind. 1 green pepper 1 onion, finely chopped 3 medium orange-fleshed sweet potatoes, around 600 – 650 g unpeeled weight 1 tsp ground cumin ¼ tsp chilli powder 350 ml vegetable stock 2 tsp lemon juice 3 tsp clementine juice 2 tsp maple syrup 2 tsp pomegranate molasses 2 clementines, divided into segments A generous handful of cranberries A generous handful of shelled pistachios A sprig or two of chervil or parsley Skin the pepper: grill it until blackened, place in a sealed plastic bag whil...

The supermarket had cheap parsnips yesterday, which seemed like a good opportunity for more soup making. More often than not I’ll make the old standby of a curried or spicy parsnip soup, but today I thought I’d make use of the sweet potatoes I had lying around and the stray Bramley apple in the fruit bowl. I use marsala in this recipe because I think it complements the taste of root veg and squashes really well – I use it quite a lot during the winter, but you could use sherry or leave it out altogether, though that would be a shame, I think. The recipe will make around 5 portions of reasonably thick soup that will be just right on cold and dreary day – like today, funnily enough. Like a lot of the soups I make this is virtuously low in fat. Parsnip Sweet Potato & Apple Soup 1 onion, finely chopped 1 teaspoon fresh ginger 3 cloves garlic, crushed Small glass of marsala A generous pinch of crushed, dried chilli 2 teaspoons dark brown sugar 375 g parsnips (prepared weight...