Home-made soups for mid-week dinners
In almost any discussion about food, the cost of it will come in at some point. I cannot count how many times a week I hear someone mention the price of some item or other. Usually, this will be in the form of a price comparison. Did I know that Aldi’s butter is cheaper than Tesco’s? Or that Lidl sells sourdough for so much less than the high street baker?
I hear about deals: three-for-twos, special offers, prices for chicken so dramatically slashed you can’t help wondering if the poor fowls themselves are paying us to eat them.
Before getting into a debate about the hidden costs of cut-price groceries, and talking of chicken (namely, broth), let us remember there is an art to eating thriftily, and it does not necessarily mean heading out to a budget supermarket.
The best counter to the bargain-hunting boaster is, quite simply, that the secret of frugality is a four-letter word: soup. Soup recipes in their thousands transcend the globe. They are easy to make, easy to love and perhaps above all other dishes the one most often recalled with affection. The actual taste of a grandmother’s chicken-noodle broth is often remembered with emotion half a century later, such is the power of our olfactory memories.
Back on the topic of souponomics, the filling, nourishing benefit of soup is equal to its economy. If you are one to make your own stock from a leftover roast chicken, you will know the combined satisfaction of a full tummy and pride in your thrift.
That is not to say you should be boiling bones all day long – that is what good-quality stock cubes were invented for. I am a bone-boiler, on the whole, but I have often made smooth vegetable soups with water too. You just need to increase the quantity of butter or other fat at the outset when softening the vegetables over a low heat. It is surprising how little salt will need to be added in the final stages.
I sense that some will be thinking: why make soup when every supermarket chain sells dozens of ‘fresh’ soups? Well, ready-made soups are a little like smoothies. They may be the right colour, though I think never bright enough; they can even taste homemade – but they are not fresh in the real sense.
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The goodness of your own when eaten immediately is much greater. You can even feel it. Last March I made a smooth soup from stinging-nettle heads, bright grass-green and delicious. Afterwards, I had the energy of two people.
The soups below have additions, popped in at the last moment to make them whole meals. You can use the base recipes then adapt with seasonal ingredients, or anything lurking in the kitchen that you feel will work.
Think of this as a blueprint – and welcome to the thrifty, heartening world of soup.
Lancashire cheese and cauliflower soup with black-pudding crumble
Lancashire cheese has a lighter, more tangy flavour than cheddar. I always use it in a cauliflower cheese, so it made sense to combine both again in this rich soup – ideal for winter suppers. For the black-pudding crumble, use the type without the fatty lumps.
SERVES
6-8
INGREDIENTS
60g butter
2 medium onions, roughly chopped
1 medium-sized cauliflower, cut into small florets and the stalk into 1cm dice
2 Maris Piper or other floury potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
600ml whole milk
500ml vegetable stock
200g Lancashire cheese, crumbled
For the black-pudding crumble
1 tbsp dripping or butter
200g black pudding, the skin removed and crumbled into small chunks
80g curly parsley, chopped
METHOD
Melt the butter in a saucepan and add the onion. Cook until softened but not coloured, then add the cauliflower and potato. Stir-fry for a minute or so, then add the milk and stock.
Bring to the boil, then simmer until the vegetables are soft.
Transfer to a blender with the cheese and process until smooth.
Return the soup to the pan, then season to taste.
To make the black-pudding crumble, place a heavy-based frying pan over a medium heat. Add the fat, allow it to heat, then add the black pudding. Cook it, stirring, until the crumbled pieces are crisp – be careful they do not burn. Set the pan to one side in a warm place.
To serve, reheat the soup, stirring it in the pan until it steams – do not let it boil – then stir the parsley into the black-pudding crumble. Ladle the soup into bowls, then scatter over the crumble
Apple, chestnut and smoked-bacon soup
Chestnuts add a nourishing sturdiness to this smooth soup, made sweet with the addition of apples. Peeled, cooked chestnuts are available in supermarkets – look for the Merchant Gourmet brand.
SERVES
6-8
INGREDIENTS
3 tbsp olive oil
2 medium onions, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves
3 rashers smoked back bacon, the fat removed and the meat diced
1 turnip, cut into small dice
1 parsnip, cut into small dice
4 eating apples, cored and sliced (the peel can be left on)
1 tsp thyme leaves
360g cooked peeled chestnuts
100ml cider (optional)
1.2 litres vegetable or chicken stock (1.3 litres if not using cider)
200ml crème fraiche
To serve
extra crème fraiche
chopped celery leaves
ground pink pepper
METHOD
Heat the oil in a saucepan and add the onion. Cook over a medium heat until soft but not coloured.
Add the garlic, bacon, turnip, parsnip, apple and thyme leaves and cook, stirring, for a minute or two then add the chestnuts.
Cook for another minute then add the cider, if using, and stock (add 100ml extra stock if not using cider). Bring to the boil then simmer for about 10-15 minutes until the parsnip and turnip are soft.
Add the crème fraiche and transfer to a blender. Process until smooth then return to the pan and reheat the soup. Add salt and pepper to taste.
To serve, add an extra blob of crème fraiche to each bowl then scatter over the celery leaves and pink pepper.
Coconut, prawn and noodle broth
It is not just the warmth of the soup that makes a big bowl of this so perfect for midwinter, but also the cheering head-clearing upshot of the spices, lemongrass and chilli.
SERVES
6-8
INGREDIENTS
250g fine rice vermicelli
2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 lemongrass sticks
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tbsp medium-strength curry powder
800ml vegetable stock
400ml coconut milk
2 spring onions, green part only, sliced
12 raw prawns, or 140g cooked and peeled brown shrimps
To serve
2 handfuls baby spinach leaves
4 (medium hot) green chillies, deseeded and chopped
1 lime, cut into quarters
METHOD
In a bowl, soak the rice vermicelli in cold water for about 30 minutes, then drain in a sieve and set to one side.
Put the oil in a saucepan and place over a low-medium heat. Cut 4cm off the root end of the lemongrass and slice as finely as possible. Add to the pan with the garlic and cook gently for one minute.
Add the curry powder and let it warm through, then add the stock and the coconut milk. Bring to simmering point and cook for about five minutes.
Add salt to taste, then the vermicelli and spring onions.
Bring back to boiling point and add the prawns to very quickly poach them, then ladle into four bowls.
Scatter over the spinach leaves and green chilli. Serve with the lime wedges to squeeze.
