Recipe: Roasted Pepper and Sweetcorn Soup

This is a heavily adapted version of Nigella's "Sunshine Soup" recipe, found in her "Kitchen" book (of which I have an awesome signed version!). I added a few extra ingredients and upped the amounts, but I just found myself attracted to the idea of the recipe, just a delicious, sweet, smooth-but-chunky soup, which is also nice and light for the summer.

Roasted Pepper and Sweet Corn Soup (serves 4)

4 tbsp olive oil

2 yellow peppers, seeded and quartered
2 orange peppers, seeded and quartered
Knob of butter
1 red onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, diced
1.2 litres chicken or vegetable stock
1 bay leaf
600g tinned Sweet corn (plain not sweetened)
Salt and pepper to taste
Chopped fresh coriander for garnish

1. Preheat the oven to 200C. Put the quartered peppers in a roasting tin with the olive oil and some seasoning, and roast for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, fry the red onion and garlic in the butter in a large saucepan.
2. Add 400g of the Sweet corn, the roasted peppers, stock and bay leaf, and boil for about 15 minutes, stirring often. Allow to cool a little, blend, and season to taste. Add the reserved Sweet corn, and bring the soup back up to heat.
3. Garnish with chopped fresh coriander if desired.

Recipe: Turkish Lentil Soup, with Spiced garlicky croutons

I know, 11 days since my last post, but i've been being a very good girl and finishing all my essays up. Once the 23rd May hits, I am utterly free for the summer- and you will see far more regular posting! 4 more essays to complete at hand in, and 2 exams before that though- phew! Made this big batch of lentil soup the other day- I would say it makes about 6 portions. I've frozen a load of it actually, so i can have it as a quick lunch when i dont have time to cook/ am studying. Might defrost some tonight, thicken it up, add some veg to it and make a vegetable dhansak kinda thing actually- yum. I love the comforting thickness, the tang of the lemon, and the unusual flavour of mint in this soup. Sometimes I have this soup with spiced naan breads also, if i dont have any bread or croutons to hand. Oh, and the croutons will last 3 days in an airtight container before going stale. Great way of using up slightly stale-ish bread.

Turkish Lentil Soup, with spiced garlicky croutons (serves 6)

Croutons

5 thick slices bread (you can use stale bread if you want), diced
3 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp cumin
½ tsp herbs du Provence
¼ tsp garlic powder
Salt and pepper

Soup
1 tbsp olive oil
1 knob of butter
1 small onion, diced
1 small red onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tsp cumin
Large handful mint, finely chopped
230g red lentils
115g bulgur wheat
1 apple, peeled, cored and diced
1 red pepper, seeded and diced
1.7 litres vegetable stock
Juice of ½ a lemon
Salt and pepper to taste
Chopped fresh parsley for garnish

1.      Preheat the oven to 180C, fan oven. On a roasting tray, add all the crouton ingredients, toss to coat, and bake in the oven for 20 minutes, or until golden and crisp. Set aside.

2.      Meanwhile, sauté the onion and garlic in the olive oil and butter for 5 minutes. Add the cumin and fry for a further 2 minutes. Add all the other ingredients (except parsley) and bring to the boil. Lower the heat, and cook on a medium heat for 40 minutes, stirring occasionally.

3.      Blend the soup partially (you want it thick, but still with a few chunks in it). Season to taste, and garnish it with the spiced croutons and freshly chopped parsley.  Serve!

Recipe: Classic French Onion Soup

A good French onion soup is one of the nicest dishes in existence! I've tried to make it as traditionally as possible, but if you wanted to up the anti go to your butchers and buy a marrow bone. A french onion soup should be beautifully sweet, savoury, wine-y and meaty! This sublime meatiness is often accomplished by chucking a marrow bone into the soup whilst it is boiling, the marrow within enriching and thickening the soup. I didnt have one to hand, and I served the soup with my friend's homemade focaccia instead of the classic toasted gruyere on french bread, but this was a marvellous soup- and I reccomend you give it a go!

Classic French Onion Soup (serves 2_

50g butter (or any animal fat/ beef dripping/lard)

1 large white onion, sliced
2 red onions, sliced
3 garlic cloves, sliced
1 tsp sugar
Pinch herbs du Provence
100ml white wine
60g meat juices (or leftover gravy etc.)
1 litre beef stock
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Fry the onions, garlic, sugar and herbs in a saucepan for 25 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the white wine and cook for a further 10 minutes.

2. Add all the other ingredients, and cook on a medium heart for 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Season to taste, and serve.

Recipe: Mexican Tortilla Soup

This is one of the nicest soups I make- and you all know by now that i generally make a lot of them! Its sweet, spicy, tangy, filling, and so moreish! Topping the soup with crushed tortillas gives the soup such an interesting texture as well. I think traditionally tortilla soups are garnished with roast chicken and avocado slices, which you are more than welcome to do- I just didnt do it because my mum is vegetarian and also can't stand avocado!!

Mexican Tortilla Soup  (serves 3)
 

2 tbsp olive oil

1 red onion, diced
1 green chilli, finely diced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
½ tsp dried oregano
1 tsp cumin
1 tin chopped tomatoes
650ml vegetable stock
1 tin black eyed beans, drained and rinsed
100g tinned sweetcorn, drained
1 tsp lemon juice
Large handful fresh coriander chopped (plus extra for garnish)
Salt, pepper and sugar to taste
Crushed tortilla chips for garnish
Lime wedges for garnish

1. Fry the onion, garlic and chilli in the olive oil for 5 minutes, or until softened. Add the oregano and cumin and fry for a further couple of minutes.
2. Add the tinned tomatoes and stock, and bring to the boil. Lower the heat, and simmer for 15 minutes. Add the beans, sweetcorn, coriander and lemon juice and simmer for a further 10 minutes.
3. Season to taste, and serve, with some fresh coriander and crushed tortilla chips.

Recipe: Italian Cabbage Soup

Have any of you ever tried that "cabbage soup" diet? I have actually, it does work- I lost about 8 pounds in a week. I used to try all sorts of diets a few years, bit of a yoyo dieter. These days I don't really bother about diet plans/ calorie counting, I just try to not over-do it on the booze and portion size, and I exercise more (I have discovered Zumba recently and it is the best thing ever!!). Whilst I was on the cabbage soup diet, I didnt use the recipe that you are supposed to follow (as to be honest it was revolting) so instead I always used to cook it this way. Nowadays I just cook this soup if I fancy it- even a weeks worth of eating it twice a day hasn't put me off this dish- it's a classic, but I love it.

Italian Cabbage Soup (makes 2 servings)

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 red onion
1 celery stick
1 carrot, peeled and diced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
½ tsp thyme
100g diced/shredded savoy cabbage
Handful fresh parsley, finely chopped
1 bay leaf
½ tin tomatoes
200ml vegetable stock
50g frozen peas or soy beans
Sugar, salt and pepper to taste

1. Fry the onion, celery, carrot and garlic in the olive oil for 5 minutes, covered, stirring occasionally. Add all other ingredients, except the peas (or soy beans), and cook covered for a further 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
2. Add the peas and cook for a further 5 minutes. Season to taste and serve!

Recipe: French Pink Garlic Soup

This is my try at a traditional dish I tried recently on my holiday in the Dordogne, and as promised on this blog, i said i would try and recreate it at home and I think i've done a rather good job! I had a bit of a google to see what other traditional recipes include- many of which included egg or mayonaiise, which was a factor i wasn't too keen on, so i just tried making it as close to what i thought the dish tasted like in the restaurant. I wont lie to you guys, this recipe is not for the faint hearted, you have to really LOVE garlic in order to enjoy this soup. I brought back the large head of pink garlic (the size of a head of elephant garlic really) from my holiday in France (from the market in Sarlat)- but you may be able to get pink garlic from a local farmers market. If you can't, and you wanted to create this recipe with normal garlic (although i'm not sure whether the flavour of normal garlic is the same as pink) then i would reccomend using 25 normal sized garlic cloves. Yes ladies and gentlemen- I said 25. I did say this recipe was for alium lovers!!!

French Pink Garlic Soup (serves 2)

50g butter
3 large white onions
1 large head pink garlic, cloves peeled and roughly chopped
Pinch dried thyme
1 bay leaf
800ml chicken or vegetable stock
75ml double cream
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Fry the onions, garlic thyme and bay leaf in the butter for 6 minutes. Add the stock and cook on a high heat for 10 minutes.
2. Add the cream and cook for a further 5 minutes. Remove the bay leaf, blend, season to taste and serve!

Recipe: Yellow courgette and Butterbean Soup with Red Pesto

This is a dish which I made from some of the lovely yellow courgettes i brought back with me from France, and a jar of red pesto I had in the cupboard that I think was part of a hamper that I won a while back. I cant believe that i havent got any of my own courgettes this year yet, the weather has been so terrible! Normally by now i'd be drowning in kilos and kilos of them! I've just got to hope for a late frost this year so i can get a good enough crop. "Red" pesto means usually that it is a pesto made of a mixture of tomatoes, sundried tomatoes and red peppers, but if you cant find any then just use sundried tomato pesto. Also of course, normal green courgettes can be used in this recipe instead of yellow.

Yellow Courgette and Butterbean Soup with Red Pesto (serves 4)

2 tbsp olive oil
Knob of butter
1 red onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1.5 litres vegetable stock
1 fresh (or 2 dried) bay leaves
1 tin butter beans, drained and rinsed
100g red pesto
300g (about 1 large) yellow courgette, diced finely
300g frozen peas
Large handful fresh parsley, chopped
Large handful fresh basil, chopped (plus extra for garnish)
Salt and pepper to taste
Freshly grated parmesan
Drizzle extra virgin olive oil

1. Fry the onions and garlic in the butter and olive oil for 10 minutes on a low heat, until soft. Add the veg stock and bay leaf and cook on a high heat for 5 minutes.
2. Add the butterbeans, courgette and pesto and cook for a further 10 minutes.
3. Add the peas and herbs and cook for a further 5 minutes. Season to taste and serve with some shredded fresh basil, grated parmesan, and a drizzle of olive oil.

Recipe: Sweet Potato Soup with Wensleydale and Cranberry Toasts

This is a bit of an unusual lunch i made for myself yesterday- we've got a load of things to use up in the fridge before we go on holiday so i've been coming up with strange combinations. Actually I find that often a delicious recipe is discovered just due to the fact that there wasn't much in the fridge/cupboards and you just sort of "made something up". I still have loadddds of wensleydale with cranberries though, my boyfriend's brother gave us a huge chunk of it after he had a party. Thinking of maybe stuffing it into chicken breasts or something? Or maybe on a tart? Hurmmmm..... any way, I would fully reccomend trying out this unusual flavour combination, it really works!! By the way, i garnished the soup with some extra virgin olive oil and a pinch of cumin seeds, but that was really just for presentation purposes.

Sweet Potato Soup with Wensleydale and cranberry toasts (serves 3)

1 tbsp olive oil
Knob of butter
1 large red onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 celery sticks, diced
2 carrots, peeled and diced
1 tsp garam masala
1 bay leaf
1 large sweet potato, peeled and diced
1 apple, peeled cored and diced
1 litre vegetable stock
Splash of milk (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste

3 large slices tiger bread
100g Wensleydale with cranberries

1. In a large saucepan, fry the onions, garlic and celery in the olive oil and butter for 10 minutes. Add the garam masala and bay leaf and cook for a further minute.
2.Add all the other ingredients (except the milk) and cook on a medium/high heat for 25 minutes. Blend (either in the pan with a hand blender, or in a liquidiser), season to taste, and add some milk if necessary to get the desired texture.
3.Meanwhile, toast the slices of tiger bread in a toaster. Heat a grill on to high, top the toast generously with the Wensleydale and put under the grill for a couple of minutes, or until beginning to brown. Serve with the soup.

Competition: New Covent Garden Soup of the Month: Summer Green Minestrone!

Hey guys! One of the most exciting wins of the last couple of years is having one of my recipes developed and produced by New Covent Garden Soups! This months "Soup of the month" is my "Summer Green Minestrone with Smoked Bacon". The theme of the competition was "Shape up with Soup" and they thought my recipe fitted the bill perfectly- containing lots of healthy green veggies, but with the flavourful addition of smoked bacon.

It's an adaption from a recipe on this website, they had to use white onions instead of red, add some potatoes, and blend it up a bit- so it's not exactly the same as my original recipe, but I had it for my lunch today and i think it tastes great! Infact I think it's one of NCG's best soups actually! Am so happy about the whole thing, and this will look fab on my C.V. when i want to go into food product development after my degree. Look how happy I am, haha!!

Competition: Delia Online's "Super Soup" Competition

Hey guys. So i've got another competition to add to my achievments! As part of Christian Aid's Super Soup lunch campaign (which involved people round the U.K making soup and then selling soup to raise money for charity), Delia online asked it's members for their favourite soup recipes. I submitted mine (and my mums!) Minestra recipe, and this recipe as well as four others were chosen to be the winners! I won a new Morphy Richards Slow Cooker and Hand Blender.

I particularly like the hand blender, as although I already have a blender at home, I do not have a food processor- so having the little attachment that comes with it means that i can now make my own breadcrumbs/ curry pastes/pestos very easily, which I couldn't do before. So i'd like to say thanks to Morphy Richards, Delia Online, and of course Christian Aid.

Recipe: Thai Dahl

Bit of a fusion dish really- lots of earthy indian flavours and ingredients, but cooked with a tin of coconut milk added as well, giving the dish a distict thai/malaysian flavour. Mum said if Thai restaurants served more dishes like this then she would prefer it much more as a cuisine! I say 30 minutes in stage 2, but basically it's ready as soon as it's the thickness that you prefer it. I served this with steamed basmati rice and salad on the side of the bowl.

Thai Dahl (serves 3)

1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter
1 red onion, diced
1 red chilli, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, crushed
Large handful fresh coriander, chopped
1 tsp mustard or nigella seeds
2 tsp garam masala
1 tsp lemon juice
250g red lentils
1 litre vegetable stock
1 tin coconut milk
2 large ripe tomatoes, diced
Salt, pepper and sugar to taste

1. Sautee the onion, garlic, chilli and coriander for 10 minutes, stirring often. Add the mustard seeds and garam masala and cook for a further 2 minutes.
2. Add all other ingredients, and cook on a low heat, covered, for 30 minutes, stirring often. Season to taste, and serve with a little extra fresh coriander on the top for garnish.

Recipe: Gazpacho

For those of you that don't know, Gazpacho is a traditional spanish vegetable soup- that is served cold. Sounds like a strange dish, but it is absolutely delicious, healthy and refreshing. I served these as part of a canape night- had my first ever paid canape job the other day!! It was so exciting and I think everything went down really well. I was only left with 7 canapes after making 200 of them, so im guessing everyone liked the food. Nick made me some business cards too, I feel like a "real adult" now that I have business cards! This recipe works very well just as a bowl of soup,with some nachos on the side, not only just as canapes- when making it as a soup or starter, you dont need to add the water. The water is needed in the canape mix so that it's a thin enough texture to drink from the shot glasses.

Gazpacho (makes 40 shots)

Ingredients:

1/4 Red onion
1 Cucumber
500g Ripe Tomatoes
1 Clove of Garlic
1 red pepper
200ml tomato juice
200ml water
2 tbsp cider vinegar
2 tsp sugar
Lots of salt and black pepper to taste
Fresh basil for garnish

1. Roughly chop onions, cucumber, tomato and garlic. Deseed the pepper and roughly chop.
2. Place all of these ingredients in a blender, and blend until completely smooth. Since this recipe makes a lot, liquidise the ingredients in batches, depending on the size of the blender. You may need to add more water, add as much as you need until you have a “shot-drinkable” consistency.
3. Season to taste, and chill in the fridge for at least 20 minutes. Serve with some freshly chopped basil leaves.

Recipe: Asian tomato and rice soup

I had to make another rather quick dinner, from the bits and bobs we had in the house last night, before rushing off to a comedy show, so i made another rather nice soup! It's almost a fusion dish really, with tomato not really being added to many chinese/ asian dishes, but it is absolutely scrummy- sweet, tangy and a little bit spicy! If you cant find the wiltshire chilli farm sauce, any sweet chilli sauce of some sort will do!

Asian Tomato and Rice Soup (serves 2)

2 tbsp rapeseed oil
½ white onion, diced finely
1 garlic clove, diced finely
½ red chilli, finely diced
1 tsp tomato puree
1 tsp crushed ginger
1 tsp ground coriander
1 x 400g tin chopped tomatoes
1 tsp sugar
1 litre vegetable stock
40g The Wiltshire Chilli Farm Fruity chilli sauce
40g basmati rice
Salt and pepper to taste
Freshly chopped coriander for garnish

1. Sautee the onion, red chilli and garlic in the rapeseed oil for 5 minutes, stirring often. Add the ginger, tomato paste and ground coriander and cook for a further 2 minutes.
2. Add the tomatoes, sugar, stock and chilli sauce, and boil for 10 minutes. Add the rice and cook on a high heat for a further 12 minutes. Season to taste, garnish with fresh coriander and serve!

Recipe: Chinese Chicken Egg Drop Soup

Yesterday I had a bit of a longer break than normal from work, so i figured i would have time to cook something for my lunch. This recipe is FAB, definitely takes less than 30 minutes to create, infact i would hazard that it can take even less than 20. If any of you have had chinese takeaways or been to a chinese restaurant before, you may be familiar with the "chicken and sweetcorn soup" they serve, the recipe of which is usually identical in each restaurant. That dish is a variation (the thicker version we all know of is apparently an "American-Chinese" invention) of the traditional "Egg Drop" or "Egg flower" soup. By adding the egg in a slow stream whilst the soup is boiling, it creates delicate thin strands of cooked egg within the soup that creates a fabulous texture. I have also made this exact same recipe with some cooked egg noodles added in at the end and that worked pretty well too.

Chicken Egg Drop Soup (serves 2)

2 tbsp rapeseed oil
2 finely chopped spring onions
1 small cooked chicken breast, diced finely
1 150g tin sweet corn
900ml chicken stock
20ml dark soy sauce
1 large egg, beaten
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Sautee the spring onion in the rapeseed oil for 2 minutes, stirring often. Add all the other ingredients except egg, and boil for 5 minutes.
2. Whilst the soup is boiling rapidly, pour the beaten egg in a steady stream whilst stirring constantly, to create thin strands of cooked beaten egg within the soup. Do this four about 2 minutes or until all the egg is cooked.
3. Season to taste and serve!

Recipe: Mushroom and Leek Soup

This is one of the nicest soups I have made in ages- really flavorful, thick and smooth. We had some mushrooms to use in the fridge and I just chucked various other vegetables we had in the cupboards. I tend to use a mixture of chestnut and closed cup mushrooms for this recipe- although most mushrooms will work I reckon. This recipe is also fantastic used as a sauce for steak or chicken, or even used as a base for a chicken and mushroom pie!

Mushroom and Leek Soup (makes 2 large bowls)

40g butter
1 large white onion, diced
1 leek, diced
1 celery stick, diced
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
210g mixed mushrooms
1 tsp thyme
½ tsp celery salt
1 potato, peeled and diced
250ml chicken stock
250ml semi-skimmed milk (plus maybe a little extra later)
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Sautee the onion, leek, celery and garlic in butter in a large pan, covered for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the mushrooms and cook for a further 5 minutes.
2. Add all the other ingredients, and cook on a high heat, covered, for 25 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat, blend, and season to taste.
3. Check consistency, and add a little milk if the soup needs to be a bit thinner. Return to the pan and heat until piping hot and serve!

Recipe: Spicy Bean and Watercress Soup

So I still had another pack of watercress in the fridge that had been in there for aaages and it had to be used up, so I thought I would make another soup again. I have got such a bad cold at the moment, just sniffling and sneezing all over the place, so I thought I would make something a little spicier than i normally would too, so that I could actually taste it properly! However, i felt like i didn't want to make the traditional milky/potato-ey watercress soup, so i decided to be a little experimental and just chuck in loads of bits and bobs from the fridges/ cupboards that needed using up. It turned out to be absolutely delicious, and Nick loved it too (and was surprized by how spicy it was as well!). It is important you try and pick pretty much all the stalks off the watercress- because you want it to wilt in the soup just like baby spinach would- takes about 15-20mins to trim but it's worth it, you can just do it during stage 2 whilst the soup is bubbling on the stove. You can also blend all of the soup if you want it smooth, but this time I wanted a bit of texture.

Spicy Mexican Bean and Watercress Soup (serves 3)

1 tbsp rapeseed oil
1 tbsp butter
1 medium white onion, diced
2 celery sticks, diced
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 tsp sundried tomato pesto
100g tinned chopped tomatoes
1 medium potatoes, diced
1 tsp cumin
Small handful fresh coriander, chopped finely
1 litre vegetable stock
1 tsp sugar
1 x 215g tin Discovery Mexican Spicy refried beans
75g watercress, trimmed of all stalks
Salt and pepper to taste
Philadelphia or sour cream for garnish (optional)

1. Sautee the onion, celery and garlic with the butter and oil in a pan for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the pesto, tinned tomatoes, potatoes, cumin and coriander, and cook for a further 2 minutes.
2. Add the stock and sugar, bring to the boil, and cook on a medium/high heat for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the refried beans and cook for a further 10 minutes.
3. Add the trimmed watercress, and cook on a high heat for 5 minutes, stirring often. Season to taste, and blend 3 large landlefuls of the soup in a blender (about a third). Return the blended soup to the pan, stir, season to taste, and bring back to the heat. Serve, each bowl garnished with a tsp of Philadelphia or sour cream if you like.

Recipe: Nick's Cullen Skink

Might find a few Scottish people annoyed that I labelled this under "British recipes"- especially with all of this independance malarky being talked about at the moment, lol! Cullen Skink is a scottish soup, made with smoked haddock, potato, milk and parsley. I was very curious as to why it was called "cullen skink", so i checked it out on wikipedia. It said that first of all, traditionally you should use smoked "Finnan haddie" instead of haddock, secondly that it orginated in the north eastern scottish town "Cullen" (hence the first part of the name), and the word "skink" comes from gaelic and originally meant "shin" or "knuckle"- the cut of beef that they used to cook in soups and stews, so then "skink" eventually became the generic word to describe any type of soup. There you go- theres some education for ya! This is my boyfriend's recipe, and its absolutely delicious- I dont even like fish, but this soup is to die for! Mind you though, hated the smell of the kitchen after it was cooked- stank of fish!! This recipe was published in our local newspaper (The Bath Chronicle), along with Nick's Cranachen recipe, after he organised (and cooked!) a big burns night supper with entertainment, for 60 people a few years back.

Nick’s Cullen Skink (serves 4)

450g un-dyed smoked haddock
50g butter
1 white onion, finely chopped
450g potatoes, peeled and diced (about 1/2 inch size)
1.1 litres semi skimmed milk
A little vegetable stock (optional)
Large handful of fresh parsley, finely chopped
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Fry the onion in the butter until soft, for about 10 mins. When the onion is nicely softened, add the milk to the pan, bring to the boil and add the diced potatoes. Simmer until potatoes cooked, approx 15 mins
2. Add the smoked haddock fillet and leave to simmer for 5 or 6 mins, until just cooked. Remove the fish with a slotted spoon and put to one side until cooled enough to touch. Flake it roughly into a bowl, removing any skin and bones.
3. Crush some of the potatoes against the side of the saucepan in order to thicken the soup slightly. The soup needs to be fairly thick, like a chowder. At this point you can add a little vegetable stock if you wish, particularly if the milky mixture has thickened a bit too much.
4. Return the fish to the soup, add the chopped parsley and warm through. Season to taste and serve!

Recipe: Watercress Soup

I know i know, it's all about the soups at the moment- but when it comes to my post Christmas slimming routine, it's really working out! Have lost a little over half a stone since New Years, and have only got a couple more pounds to lose before i'm happy with slimming down again. Apparently there is a whole "watercress soup" diet, that Liz Hurley was rather fond of, which is very similar to "the cabbage soup diet" but obviously with watercress instead. Mind you, i dont think the recipe for her watercress soup would include butter and potatoes, and wouldnt taste half as nice as this! I love the fresh but peppery flavour you get from this soup, very warming.

Watercress Soup (makes 3 bowls)

1 tbsp rapeseed oil
1 tbsp butter
1 white onion, diced
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 celery stick, diced
400g potatoes, peeled and diced
1 bay leaf
500ml chicken stock
500ml semi skimmed milk
100g watercress (plus a few extra sprigs kept for garnish)
Salt and pepper to taste
*Optional extra virgin olive oil for garnish

1. Sautee the onions, celery and garlic in the butter and oil, for 10 minutes, covered, stirring occasionally. Add all other ingredients except the watercress, bring to the boil, and cook on a medium heat for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
2. Add the watercress, and cook for a further 3 minutes. Remove from the heat, blend, season to taste and serve- with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and a sprig of watercress.

Recipe: Beef Goulash Soup

This is a delicious traditional hungarian dish, that i've been making a lot at the moment because it's so cold in my new flat! BrrrrRRrrRR! In hungary, and in a lot of other cold countries (saw it in restaurants in Iceland and when i was in Prague) they serve goulash soup as a starter (rather than the traditional thicker goulash casserole served with potato dumplings, which is served as a main course). It is rather filling though! Traditionally you would use pork in this dish, but i used beef because that's just what I happened to have in the fridge. Only thing missing from this dish is parsley on top- forgot to get any from the shops- D'oh!

Beef Goulash Soup (serves 2)

1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter
1 white onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 carrots, peeled and diced
250g casserole or stewing steak, finely diced
1 tsp paprika
½ tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp caraway seeds, crushed in a mortar and pestle or spice grinder
2 potatoes, peeled and diced
1.5 litres beef stock
1 bay leaf
1 yellow pepper, seeded and diced
Salt and pepper to taste
Chopped fresh parsley for garnish (optional)

1. In a large pan, fry the onions, garlic and carrots in the oil and butter for 5 minutes. Add the beef and paprika, and cook for a further 5 minutes.
2. Add all other ingredients except the diced pepper and parsley, and cook on a medium high heat for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.
3. 15 minutes before the end of cooking time, add the peppers. Remove the bay leaf, season to taste and serve topped with some chopped fresh parsley!

Recipe: Carrot, Maple and Bacon Soup

Sounds like a reeeeeeally weird combination I guess, but when you think about it things like honey and maple syrup are used with root vegetables all the time. Honey roasted parsnips or carrots are of course, a very popular dish at Christmas. So I thought I would try and see whether maple syrup and carrots compliment eachother, and it worked out really really well! I then thought, this soup is quite sweet, so it needs something salty to set it off- and then I remembered Americans love putting maple syrup on their bacon and pancakes at breakfast, so I thought that would make a good garnish. In some supermarkets you can actually get "maple cured bacon" as well, which is delicious too. I am entering this recipe into Love The Garden's "Christmas Carrot" recipe competition. It is a recipe competition for bloggers that ends 21st December- all you have to do is post up a carrot recipe onto your blog, mention their site, and you are end up with a chance to win a £200 dinner at any restaurant of your choice! Here is the URL, if any of you fancy going in for it! http://www.lovethegarden.com/blog/christmas-carrot-competition

Carrot, Maple and Bacon Soup (makes 2 large bowls, or serves 4 as a starter)

50g butter
1 red onion, diced
1 white onion, diced
½ tsp mixed herbs
500g carrots, peeled and diced
30ml maple syrup (plus extra for drizzling)
700ml vegetable stock
Salt and pepper to taste
4 thin rashers smoked bacon (or generally 2 rashers per person)

1. Sautee the onions, mixed herbs and carrots in the butter and maple syrup, covered, for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove the lid, and continue to cook for about 10 minutes, or until the vegetables have started to caramelise.
2. Add vegetable stock and cook on a high heat for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, heat the oven to as high as possible, and cook rashers of smoky bacon on s non-stick baking tray until they go nice and crispy (this generally takes 10-15 minutes).
3. Blend the soup, add any extra water/stock if necessary to get to your desired thickness, season to taste and serve hot- garnished with crispy smoked bacon and an extra drizzle of maple syrup!