Nutmeg is one of the traditional flavourings for spinach and a small grating would be good here, but always be cautious with the addition of nutmeg, as you know that too much can spoil the pudding, or the soup in this case.
The ingredients
Potatoes and onions are used in the soup base. The onion adds lots of flavour and the potato thickens the soup.
The green vegetable you use will be the determining flavour of the finished soup. Spinach is my choice here, but any of the following vegetables produce an excellent result. Green cabbage at any time of the year with tough ribs removed from the leaves and finely chopped is excellent. Also nettles, watercress, wild garlic leaves, diced courgettes or cucumbers, Swiss chard leaves, pea and bean leaves, dark green lettuce leaves and so on.
Chicken stock produces the most flavoursome result here.
Serves 6 50g butter
110g onions, peeled and diced
140g potatoes, peeled and diced
Maldon sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1.2 litres chicken or vegetable stock
350g spinach leaves or your green vegetable of choice, weighed after removing stalks
Freshly grated nutmeg
Creamy milk, i.e. milk and cream mixed in equal proportion
Melt the butter in a heavy-based saucepan and allow to foam. Add the onions and potatoes, season with salt and pepper, and toss with a wooden spoon to coat the vegetables in the butter. Cover with a greaseproof paper lid and the lid of the saucepan and cook on a very low heat for 10 minutes or so. This is called ‘sweating’ the vegetables. The object of the exercise is to soften them slightly, with no colour at all.
Add the stock, bring to a simmer and cover again with the saucepan lid. Simmer until the onion and potato is completely tender and starting to collapse. This will take about 15 minutes. Remove the lid of the saucepan and add the spinach and nutmeg. Do not replace the saucepan lid. Bring to a simmer and cook until the spinach is tender. This can take from 1–2 minutes for baby spinach to 5 minutes for large leaves. If you cannot tell by looking at the vegetable if it is cooked, taste a little – it should be tender and slippery.
Purée immediately with a hand-held blender or in a liquidiser. Add a little more stock or creamy milk if the soup is too thick. Taste and correct the seasoning. If not serving immediately, do not cover, as this will spoil the green colour. Serve in hot soup bowls, garnished with a little blob of cream or a few drops of olive oil.
The soup can be prepared ahead and reheated later, though the green colour will not be as strident as when it was first made.
Potato soup with parsley pesto and black pudding
A single slice of black pudding, sizzling from the pan, is great in each bowl of this comforting and nourishing soup. The parsley pesto, a great and versatile sauce, combines brilliantly with the potato and the pudding. Failing black pudding, a few slices of chorizo warmed in olive oil or a sprinkle of crispy lardons of bacon are excellent.
The ingredients
Black pudding varies in quality, and on the whole puddings made by artisan producers tend to be considerably better than the factory-produced equivalent.
Serves 4–6 50g butter
425g potatoes, peeled and cut into 1cm dice
175g onions, peeled and cut into 1cm dice
Maldon sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
900ml chicken stock
120ml creamy milk
4–6 slices of black pudding
4–6 teaspoons Parsley Pesto
Melt the butter in a saucepan and allow to foam. Add the diced vegetables and stir to coat in the butter. Season with salt and pepper. Cover with a greaseproof paper lid and the saucepan lid and cook on a very low heat for about 10 minutes. The potatoes should be just beginning to break down at this point.
Now add the stock and bring to the boil. Replace the saucepan lid and simmer gently until the vegetables are soft and cooked. This takes about 15 minutes. Purée the soup in a liquidiser or with a hand-held blender until a smooth and silky consistency is achieved. Add creamy milk as necessary if the soup needs thinning out. Taste and adjust the seasoning. Fry the black pudding gently in butter or olive oil on both sides to heat through. Serve the soup in hot bowls, with a teaspoon of parsley pesto and a slice of sizzling black pudding per person.
Carrot, coconut and lemongrass soup
I tasted a soup with these ingredients in Laos a few years ago, and when I came home I set about recreating that delicious flavour. Carrot soup is a funny thing – you imagine it would be easy, but in fact it can be difficult to achieve a really flavoursome result. However, with this lovely combination of flavours I think it works really well.
It is worth noting that lemongrass grows successfully in this country in a glasshouse or conservatory, or even just on a south-facing windowsill. If possible buy carrots with the earth still on them, as generally they have much more flavour than pre-washed ones.
The ingredients
I like to make this soup with big carrots that have been sold with some earth still on them, and preferably after the first frosts, when they seem to become deeper in flavour, so this becomes a late autumn and winter soup.
Lemongrass is easy to source now and is a lovely ingredient with its sweet, scented and astringent flavour. Bright green when fresh, it dulls to a pale straw colour when dried, which is the way it is sold generally in the West. Here it needs to be sliced as finely as you can, so that it will cook down and disappear into the puréed soup. Be careful when running your hands over the grass, as its leaves can be razor sharp. If you have not cooked with it before, give it a go, as it will open up a world of different recipes to you.
Coconut milk, like lemongrass, is an essential ingredient in the cooking of south-east Asia and indeed all of southern India. Like lemongrass, using it is an entry ticket to a repertoire of dishes bigger than you can imagine. The first time you open a can, you may be surprised by the rather grey-white colour of the contents. That’s fine, that’s the way it looks. Apart from the colour, the general appearance can also vary. Sometimes there will be a thick and solid layer on top, which is the richer cream, with a thinner, watery milk-like liquid underneath. If the can has been shaken, the two different consistencies can appear rather curdled, and again that’s all quite all right. Just stir the two liquids together to mix. Some brands of coconut milk have been emulsified to prevent the two liquids from separating and to give the coconut a creamy appearance. I avoid these brands, because apart from the fact that in some recipes the thick and the thin are added separately, I really just want the coconut and water that is used as part of the process and don’t want the stabilizers and emulsifiers. The quality of tinned coconut milk varies quite a bit, so search out a good brand such as Chaokoh.
Serves 6–8 40g butter
700g carrots, peeled and thinly sliced
225g onions, peeled and thinly sliced
1 clove of garlic, peeled and chopped
2 stalks of lemongrass
Maldon sea salt, freshly ground black pepper
and sugar, to taste
850ml chicken stock
500ml coconut milk
Fresh coriander leaves, to garnish
Melt the butter in a heavy-based saucepan and allow it to