Marthali Brand Moveable feast
Everyone knows the restorative qualities of a hearty soup. Even a cup of instant soup can revive me after a hard day in front of the computer, or a tough workout at the gym. And a hot vegetable concoction served with a slice of buttered wholewheat bread can warm up any winter evening.
Although some soups need endless hours of preparation, soaking vegetables and simmering meat and bones, many healthy varieties require only half-an-hour in front of a hot stove.
One such a dish is broccoli soup. Even people who prefer not to eat that delicious vegetable will like this one. Fry some chopped onion (or spring onion) in butter or oil until soft. Add broccoli florets and fry until soft. Sprinkle a little flour on to the broccoli and fry until brown. Stir in enough chicken or vegetable stock and milk to reach the right consistency (you can make it as runny as you like).
Let it simmer for about half-an-hour, remove from the heat and blend. Reheat the soup just before serving and garnish with breadcrumbs and parmesan cheese.
A hand mixer is an essential implement for making soup. Food processors are too bulky to take out every time, and the soup has to be transferred from pot to blender and back to the pot. A hand blender blends straight in the pot, and you can stop blending when youve reached the right consistency.
The broccoli soup recipe forms the basis for a myriad combinations. Use asparagus, celery or baby marrows or a combination of these vegetables if you prefer. Lactose- intolerant cooks can leave out the milk.
For a rich soup, add a cup of cream when you reheat it after blending, but remove from the heat before it boils, because cream can do all sorts of funny things when overheated. Black pepper and herbs like thyme can be added to taste.
An even simpler vegetable soup is cream of cauliflower. Fry florets of cauliflower in oil or butter until soft. Add stock and simmer until the cauliflower is tender. Remove from the heat and blend. Return to the stove, add cream and reheat until just before boiling. Add salt, pepper and nutmeg to taste and serve. For a richer soup, stir in some grated cheddar cheese with the seasonings. This soup takes only 20 minutes to make.
The best thing to serve with vegetable soups is croutons. Remove the crusts from slices of white or brown bread. Brush the slices with olive oil, and garlic, if necessary. Cut the slices into 1cm cubes and bake them on a tray in a moderate oven until golden brown. Serve as garnish on top of soups, or put a bowl of them on the table for people to help themselves.
Pumpkin soup makes a healthy meal and if you use a whole Halloween pumpkin, so much the better. Cut a circle around the stem of the pumpkin. Remove the seeds and scoop out the flesh with a spoon, leaving about 1cm of flesh inside the skin. Wipe the inside of the hollowed-out pumpkin with a damp cloth. Cut the pumpkin flesh, two potatoes, a sweet potato and a carrot into 1cm cubes. Fry all this with a diced onion until everything is soft. Add some nutmeg, cinnamon and a teaspoon of sugar, preferably brown, and cook until the sugar has dissolved. Add about two cups of stock, bring to the boil and simmer until the vegetables are soft enough to blend about 30 minutes. Blend, ladle into the pumpkin shell, use the top as a lid and serve hot.
For a richer soup, you can add some cream after blending and heat until just before boiling.