Category Archives: Soups

Celery and Potato Soup with Cheese

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Celery and Potato Soup

A smooth blended soup made with celery, potato and soy cream, finished with grated cheddar.
Perfect as a light lunch or starter.

Celery and Potato Soup

Servings: 6
Total time: 35m

INGREDIENTS

  • 50g butter
  • Extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 large onion, chopped
  • 1 head celery, chopped
  • 450g potatoes, peeled and chopped
  • 1000ml vegetable stock
  • 200ml soy cream
  • Salt and pepper
  • 100g cheddar cheese, grated

METHOD

  1. Heat the olive oil and butter together in the pressure cooker.
  2. Add the onion and celery and fry gently until soft.
  3. Add the chopped potatoes and vegetable stock, then season with salt and pepper.
  4. Cover and bring to pressure.
  5. Lower the heat and cook for 15 minutes.
  6. Release the pressure.
  7. Blend the soup well using a stick blender.
  8. Stir in the soy cream.
  9. Serve in bowls, sprinkling over the grated cheddar.

Spicy Butternut Squash Soup

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SPICY BUTTERNUT SQUASH, TOMATO AND LENTIL SOUP

Spicy butternut squash, tomato and lentil soup

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 butternut squash, cubed
  • 1 large onion, roughly chopped
  • 1 400g jar of chopped tomatoes
  • 2 cartons natural yoghurt
  • 1 cup red lentils
  • 1 inch ginger, chopped
  • 2 red chillis, chopped
  • 1 teaspoon garam masala
  • 1 teaspoon dried fennel
  • 1 teaspoon Pakistani masala
  • 1 teaspoon cardamon
  • vegetable stock
  • Salt and pepper
  • Extra virgin olive oil

METHOD

  1. Heat some oil in a pressure cooker.
  2. Fry the chopped onions for 5 minutes, seasoning with salt and pepper.
  3. Add the spices and continue frying.
  4. Add the tomatoes, lentils and ginger, and mix well.
  5. Add another tomato jar of water and another 800ml water.
  6. Bring to pressure, then reduce heat and cook for 20 minutes.
  7. Leave to return to normal pressure and then liquidize.
  8. Blend in the yoghurt and check for seasoning.
  9. Serve.

Chilled Cucumber Soup

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CHILLED CUCUMBER SOUP

During the summer months at the cortijo, I love making chilled vegetable soups to eat in the evening, and my favourites are salmorejo and gazpacho. I’ve recently been experimenting with other types of soup. We’ve got loads of cucumbers at the moment, so this is one I tried today.  

Chilled Cucumber Soup

INGREDIENTS

  • 500g ready-prepared cucumbers, peeled and chopped
  • 1 large clove garlic, roughly chopped
  • 1 small pot of natural yoghurt
  • 60g extra virgin olive oil
  • 20g cider vinegar
  • 60ml water
  • a couple of sprigs of mint leaves, destemmed
  • a pinch of salt

METHOD

  1. Put all the ingredients into a liquidiser and blend for 7 minutes.
  2. Pour into a bowl and chill well before serving.

French Onion Soup

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FRENCH ONION SOUP

This is my version of a French onion soup. We’ve just harvested this year’s onions at the cortijo so I thought it would be a good idea to cook this to mark the harvest.

French Onion Soup

The secret is to cook the thinly sliced onions for a long time so that they caramelise thoroughly. You can start the pan on a fairly high heat at first as the onions will have a lot of water and then you can adjust the flame as the onions dry out.

INGREDIENTS

  • 6 large onions, cut into quarters and then thinly sliced in a food processor (the sliced onions weighed 1100g)
  • 2 vegetable stock cubes
  • a splash of balsamic vinegar
  • a splash of soy sauce
  • a splash of Worcestershire sauce
  • extra virgin olive oil
  • a teaspoon or so of salt
  • a large knob of butter

METHOD

  1. Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan.
  2. Add the sliced onions and fry.
  3. Cover with a lid and leave to fry, on quite a high flame at first before turning the heat down gradually, checking them every 5 minutes to see that they temperature is not too high.
  4. The important thing is for the onions to caramelise slowly so that they turn a dark brown.
  5. Add the stock cubes and the butter and continue to fry gently.
  6. After about 5 minutes, pour in the water and the other ingredients and bring to the boil.
  7. Serve with croutons and grated cheese.
  8. To make the croutons, cut some stale bread into cubes.
  9. Transfer to a bowl and sprinkle over some olive oil.
  10. Cook in an air fryer on 200ºC for 5 minutes or so, tossing in the bowl half-way through the cooking time.

Carrot Soup

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CARROT SOUP

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 large onion, roughly chopped
  • 4 large carrots, roughly chopped
  • Greek yoghurt
  • fresh coriander
  • vegetable stock
  • salt and pepper
  • olive oil
  • 2 tablespoons red pesto

METHOD

  1. Heat some olive oil in a pressure cooker.
  2. Gently fry the onion until soft.
  3. Add the carrot and season with salt.
  4. Add about 1.2 litres water and the vegetable stock.
  5. Cover the pressure cooker and bring to pressure.
  6. Turn down the heat and cook for 15 minutes.
  7. Blend the soup and then add some Greek yoghurt and the red pesto.
  8. Grind some black pepper over the surface of the soup.
  9. Serve with some chopped coriander.